Five Times Josh Kissed Aidan
by Fate Harbor
Summary: ...without it changing their friendship and one time Aidan kissed Josh, wanting more. Aidan/Josh pairing! Please read and review!
1. Meeting

**Disclaimer: does not belong to me, a sad fact which applies to this and all subsequent chapters.**

**Okay, folks, this is my first foray into Being Human fanfiction. Long time viewer, first time writer. Love love LOVE the show! Please let me know if I'm doing the boys justice!**

**Ever-so-slightly AUish, in that this chapter is a reimagining of their first meeting and Nora doesn't make an appearance in the story. But all the gloriousness of Josh and Aidan (and Sally, in later chapters) will remain intact! **

**I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please take the time to review!**

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Aidan was starving, his hunger more persistent and excruciating than he could ever remember it being. Considering his long life, that was saying something. He'd suffered through a famine when he was a child and had grown agonizingly familiar with the gnawing, clawing pain of food deprivation before his family's meager harvest had come in. He'd been at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War, where the merciless winter coupled with a devastating shortage of rations had left him weak, fatigued and near delirious from hunger and illness.

But that was before he'd been Turned.

Human starvation was a mild irritant compared to the unrelenting, all-consuming, irresistible instinct – the dire _need_ – to gorge himself on the life-blood of another. It was all he could think about! There were times when he could taste the blood on his lips as he stared at a co-worker's pulsing jugular vein or a patient's open, flowing wound. God, it would be so easy to just _take_ what he needed…

Aidan gave his head a violent shake and scrubbed his face wearily with his hands, determined to force those thoughts aside. He continued to walk through the black, damp streets of nighttime Boston; no destination in mind, just the need to escape for a while. He wasn't quite sure why he'd thought an escape from his empty, sterile apartment would translate to an escape from his own head, but all those dark impulses held a lot more sway in the oppressive silence of his apartment. He had hoped the distractions of the city would be enough to take his mind off of the consequences of his new-found conscience.

So far, it wasn't working.

He'd been single-handedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people over the centuries, maybe more, but the effortless slaughter, the accepted justifications, the perverse _game_ of it all, had started to grate on him over the last few years. He blamed his latest career move. He'd flippantly decided to pursue medicine as his newest occupational endeavor, thinking only of the ready access to blood and weakened victims.

If he'd known the price beforehand, he would have written it off as being _far_ too high and undoubtedly would have stayed a history professor.

Yes, there was blood aplenty and yes, the victims were easy pickings, but it could never be that simple, could it? For every easy meal, he had to face the tears and pain of bereft family members, the pleadings and hysterical anger of abandoned spouses, the raw wails and tragic sobs of parents mourning their children. It was almost enough to revive the cold, dead organ in his chest – fill it with warm memories of his parents, his siblings, his wife, his son, and countless others he hadn't thought of in centuries, only to have his newly awakened heart shatter at their deaths all over again. That he was making others feel the same pain, pain he thought he'd long since put behind him, was enough to resuscitate his almost non-existent conscience.

And so, here he was. Trying an experiment that, when explained to Bishop, had sent the older vampire into blustering, hysterical laughter. After Bishop had finished making him feel like an idiot, the blond had casually waived him away with an indulgent, kids-say-the-darndest-things smile and a softer, bemused chuckle that had echoed after him as he left.

As Aidan turned the corner onto a deserted street, gritting his teeth at the memory of Bishop's condescending dismissal, he came out of his musings abruptly and promptly forgot all about the sanctimonious Vampire. He perked up his ears and heard a panicked, rambling voice coming from a nearby side-street.

"Look, man, take whatever you want! Here's my cell and my wallet and I don't have much cash, but there's credit cards and my Subway LinkPass and a coupon for ½ off a shrimp basket at Long John Silvers and…and a condom!...that I, wow, really hope you don't plan to use right now. 'Cause um...I've got herpes! Yeah! And, uh, it's bad. Scorching, even. Yep, scorching and _totally incurable_."

Quickly glancing around the quiet, abandoned streets, Aidan silently made his way toward the alley the sounds had come from and peaked around the corner at the scene. Some scrawny, pitiful kid was backed against the wall by three well-dressed, extremely pale and distinctly scented men. Vampires. Focusing on the kid, Aidan sniffed at the air and recoiled slightly at the wet-dog smell of him. So, he was a Werewolf. There was no love lost between Vampires and Werewolves and even Aidan's burgeoning conscience, as troublesome as it was, thankfully didn't extend to the half-breed mutts. That should have been that. But, for some reason (that may or may not have had to do with the kid's awkward, albeit hilarious, ramblings), he stayed immobile against the brick wall and listened.

"We don' want your useless shit and we sure as hell don' wanna go near your mangy ass." One of the men voiced, in a slight Irish brogue. "Just lookin' for a little fun, is all. It's gettin' close to the full moon, innit?"

The kid, if possible, spun into a whole new dimension of freaked-out, complete with a paling face, shaking body and squeaking voice. "W-what? F-full moon, why would I care if it's a full moon? The only people who c-care about that are sailors a-and wiccans and I guess, maybe astronomers…" One of the man's hands shot out, clutching the kid's neck threateningly but not yet squeezing. "Oh, god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

A new voice joined the fray, one that had Aidan's eyes darkening dangerously. Marcus. "Seems we're the pup's first Vampire encounter, boys." Marcus said casually. The kid's face crumpled in confusion, the panic bubbling just beneath the surface.

"M-my first what?"

"Your first. Vampire. Encounter." Marcus intoned slowly. Then, in the blink of an eye, he transformed. His eyes blackened and he bared his fangs, hissing slightly. His two companions followed his example and at this point, the kid well and truly lost his shit. A nanosecond scream escaped him before one of Marcus' henchmen slapped a hand over his mouth. Marcus smiled around his fangs. "And unfortunately for you, it'll also be your last."

"Marcus." The sound echoed through the dark alley and drew the attention of all four men. As all eyes focused on him, Aidan's brain caught up to his actions and he realized _he'd_ called Marcus' name and stepped into the alley.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Vegan Vampire himself." Marcus drawled, his companions snickering. "It's a bit late to be prowling the streets for a blood bank, isn't it, Aidan?"

Aidan barely paid Marcus' pathetic taunts any mind. At some point his eyes had drifted from Marcus to the kid, whose wide doe-eyes were locked on his. Those light brown orbs, so undeniably _innocent_ despite being a Werewolf, were pleading with him. Those eyes were begging to be saved, pinning Aidan with all of his hope and desperation, looking at him like he was God himself. Those eyes didn't belong to a monster or a deranged mutt; they belonged to a scared kid, a good person, someone who was clearly in _way _over his head. And suddenly, Werewolf, Vampire, Monster, none of it mattered. Aidan was just a guy and this kid was just a guy, one who needed him. It nearly took Aidan's breath away, the awesome responsibility of being vital to someone, like blood was vital to him.

Dragging his eyes away from the kid's, Aidan focused on Marcus and let his fangs extend with a faint _hiss_. The kid gave a muffled yelp from under the goon's hand, but Aidan ignored him. "Let him go."

Marcus sneered. "What, you're playing the knight in shining armor for a fucking Were, now? God, Aidan, what happened to you?"

"Be more concerned with what'll happen to you, Marcus." Aidan growled dangerously.

"So mutts and humans are on your protected species list, but Family is fair game? Is that it, Aidan? God-_damn_,_ y_ou disgust me. I'll never understand why Bishop favors you above more worthy Vampires."

But Aidan wouldn't be distracted, not when those big brown eyes lingered in his mind. "Let. Him. Go. _Now_, Marcus!"

"With pleasure." Marcus grinned evilly, stretching his lips open wide. Aidan rushed through the alley, his speed just shy of super-sonic. As soon as Marcus lowered his head, his fangs a centimeter away from sinking into the kid's young flesh, Aidan was in front of him and knocking Marcus down half the length of the alley. The other two Vampires couldn't have been more than fifty years old, given their slow reflexes and dismal defenses. He dispatched them easily and for all of Marcus' talk of being more worthy, the younger Vampire knew a hopeless fight when he saw one. Marcus gathered his cronies and they were soon absorbed by the dark Boston night.

Aidan looked down at the kid, who had slid down the wall and was now hugging his knees to his chest, his face slack with shock.

"Come on, kid." Aidan stuck his hand out. The kid looked at it uncertainly. Those luminous, wide eyes moved from his hand to his face and back again before clasping the offered hand and allowing himself to be pulled up. "You look like you could use a drink."

"More like a dose of Risperidone." The kid muttered shakily. Aidan glanced at him in surprise, having heard of the antipsychotic drug around the hospital. He looked a bit young to be a doctor, but then Aidan himself looked a bit young to have personally met George Washington, so he wasn't going to judge. The kid glanced over his shoulder at the alley behind them. "Did that really just happen or am I going crazy? Well, crazier, anyway."

Aidan shook his head. "Booze first, then life-changing, foundation-rocking conversations. Trust me, you'll prefer it in that order."

"Whatever you say, man." the kid shook his head. "I'm Josh, by the way. Josh Radcliff."

"Aidan McCollin."

"Thanks, Aidan…you know, for the save back there."

"Anytime, Josh."

**XXXXXXXXXX**

It was nearly four in the morning and the bars had long since closed down, so Aidan led Josh to his apartment. He pulled out a chair at the breakfast bar for Josh before moving into the kitchen. Pulling a bottle of scotch from the cabinet and pouring them both generous glasses, he slid one to his companion.

"Thanks." Josh mumbled, not looking at him. He grabbed the glass with a shaking hand and, much to Aidan's surprise, he downed the entire drink in a couple of gulps. Sputtering and gagging, Josh slammed the glass down and Aidan couldn't help but chuckle. He was just so – the first word that came to mind was _cute_, but Aidan repressed that in favor of the more neutral – _human. _

"More?" Aidan asked, smirking.

"After the night I've had? God, yes." Josh shuddered, whether from the alcohol or the memory, Aidan didn't know. Aidan poured another glass and while Josh took a healthy gulp, he didn't try to down it all in one go again. Smacking his lips against the burning liquid, Josh finally looked at Aidan. "So…were those guys really…you know…"

"Vampires?" Aidan asked. "Yeah."

"And you're a…too?"

Aidan chuckled again. "You can say it, you know. Saying it won't _make_ you one."

Josh took a deep breath and seemed to gather his courage. "You're a Vampire, too."

"That, I am." Aidan confirmed. "What about you? When were you Turned?"

Josh put his hands up, waving frantically in disagreement. "Ohhh, no! No, no! I'm not…I mean, I've never…I'm not a Vampire!"

Aidan gave him a deadpan look. "I know that, you idiot. I meant, when were you bitten?"

"I just said I'm not a Vampire!" Josh choked out, getting that panicky tone he'd had in the alley.

"And I just said I already knew that. I meant, when were you _bitten_ by a _Werewolf_? When did you _Turn_ into a _Werewolf_?"

Josh stared at him agog for a moment, when some horrified bubble of laughter escaped him. His expression seemed to alternate every few seconds, at one moment being consumed by incredulous laughter and the next overtaken by a mask of horror and anxiety. "I'm not…a Werewolf." he said, nearly whispering the last part and glancing around them, as though just saying it made him feel ridiculous.

"Um…yeah, ya are." Aidan said, wondering if the kid really was a moron.

"No, I'm not." Josh said more forcefully, frightened denial in his tone. "I'm not a Werewolf, or a Vampire, or a Goblin, or a fucking Leprechaun! I'm a normal guy, with a normal…well, slightly dysfunctional…okay, totally fucked up, life. But a _human_ life! "

"And becoming a four-legged killing machine once a month…that's part of being human?" Aidan asked.

"Hey, that's only happened once!" Josh stood up suddenly, his eyes wide with fear and his breathing labored. "And I'm almost positive I was hallucinating! So just shut up, okay! You don't know anything about it!"

Aidan stared at the panicked, confused kid in front of him and it finally made sense. He hung his head and shook it. The kid had only been through one Shift and clearly, his maker wasn't around to explain things. No wonder he was so lost! Aidan couldn't just turn him loose on the world, still in denial of what he was. That would be setting the kid up to become a killer and little distinctions like 'it was the wolf, not you' wouldn't matter to someone as sensitive as Josh. Aidan couldn't bear the thought of that inexplicable innocence leaving his eyes.

Aidan grabbed the bottle of scotch and topped off Josh's glass, filling it clear up to the rim.

"Drink up, Josh." Aidan sighed. "This is gonna be a long night."

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Aidan was impressed. Josh had gone through all the stages of grief in record time. Denial had lasted the longest, but after getting Josh to admit he'd woken up next to a dead, half-masticated deer carcass after his first Shift, well, there was really no point anymore. Plus, Aidan had bared his fangs and let the Vampire take over for a moment, reinforcing the fact that creatures like them weren't just science fiction.

The anger stage was nothing short of _adorable_ and it had taken all of Aidan's self-control to hide his smile when Josh picked up a glass, pulled his arm back to throw it, then deflated and set it down gingerly before repeating the process with various objects around his home. Even in what had to be one of the worst moments of his life, the kid was still so freaking polite that he couldn't just let go and abandon the social niceties.

Surprisingly, bargaining was nearly non-existent. All Josh had said was, "I can't imagine God caring enough to deal with the Devil's pets."

…which had slid them right into depression. Those big, pretty eyes had welled up and in a display equal parts petulance and defiance, he'd swiped the length of his sleeved forearm across his eyes like a tired and broken child. Aidan hadn't known what to do for him, since he'd hadn't comforted anyone since Roosevelt was president. So, he'd just placed his hand on the back of Josh's neck, grasping it lightly in what he hoped was an appropriately reassuring gesture.

Aidan knew that acceptance was pretty far off, but Josh was doing a decent imitation of it, thanks to the booze. He didn't appear to be a sullen drunk; no, he was a giggly drunk.

Of _course_, he was.

"Hey, Aidan. H-hey…Aidan!" Josh giggled, his head lolling to Aidan's shoulder as they sat side by side on the couch. Aidan took a sip of his scotch, absentmindedly rubbing slow circles into Josh's tense neck muscles with his thumb. "D-did you hear what that douche-y Vampire said? You remember, the ginger one?"

"Marcus." Aidan supplied.

"Right. Marcush." Josh slurred. "H-he called me 'pup'! I…wow, I so didn't get that at the time. Bwhahahaha!"

It was stupid and Aidan knew it, though he couldn't stop himself from laughing with the drunken Werewolf. With a faint smile still on his face, Aidan turned his head to the side, taking another sip of his scotch. He turned back to Josh, mouth parted to say…_something_, when he felt a pair of soft, warm lips cover his own. His eyes widened and his lips froze against Josh's, but the kid's eyelids were squeezed tight and he didn't seem to notice Aidan's shock. Those supple lips shifted slightly against his, causing Josh's five o'clock shadow to scrape against his own perpetually smooth skin. Just as Aidan's eyes slid closed and he leaned in, the moment was over and Josh had shifted back a couple of inches. His eyes were serious and suddenly clear of the alcohol-induced haze.

"You saved me." Josh said, his tone solemn and grateful.

"I –" Aidan started, only to cut himself off as Josh slumped back onto the couch, unconscious.

Aidan sighed, but picked up the hapless Werewolf and tucked him into the guest bed. It wasn't until he was settled in his own bed, staring up at the ceiling and listening to Josh's light snores through the wall, that he realized he hadn't thought about his persistent hunger once all night.

And in the morning, when it was clear Josh didn't remember kissing him (or anything after the anger stage, really), Aidan told himself it was for the best and started building a strong, honest, and _completely_ _platonic_ friendship with Josh Radcliff.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**Stay tuned, there's more to come! Read and review!**

~Fate Harbor


	2. Fever

**A HUGE THANKS goes out to RainGoddess2040, B. Logan, WaffleNinja and RaiineDays for reviewing the first chapter! **

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It took all of four months for Josh to become the one of the best friends Aidan had ever had, a feeling he knew was mutual. Although, considering he was more than ten times Josh's age, Aidan felt that statement carried a bit more weight coming from him. They ingratiated themselves fully and effortlessly into each other's lives. Josh had stayed in his guest room for a couple of weeks and though Aidan had invited him to stay, Josh had insisted that Aidan had done so much for him already and he didn't want to impose (thinking back on it, bringing home that really, um, _enthusiastic_ waitress may have had something to do with it). Josh found a place of his own, which was only two blocks from Aidan's apartment. Aidan felt it was a useless gesture, considering they spent most nights together at one or the other's apartment anyway. Since Josh was new to Boston after leaving his pre-Wolf life behind, Aidan had talked the head of personnel at the hospital into giving him a job. He'd been in Med-school before, but had dropped out after accepting that he was, in fact, a Werewolf, so the only job he was qualified for in the hospital was as an orderly. It was almost criminal to have Josh's brilliant scientific mind be wasted on janitorial duties, but he seemed content just to be working in a hospital.

There were times when Aidan could see what an amazing doctor he would have been, not only because of his intelligence, but for his seemingly inexhaustible ability to care. While doctors were all business and nurses engaged in insincere small talk, Josh took an extra moment after replacing a bed pan or changing the sheets to actually treat the patients like people instead of charts. He took the time to learn their names. He knew the names of family members that visited regularly, greeting them when they were there and asking after them when they were not. For as painfully, tragically, and hilariously awkward as he was around stable adults, it all just fell away in the face of vulnerable and scared patients. It was like he couldn't be bothered with the suffocating pressure of his own social failings when confronted with what he considered to be _real _problems, which ironically made him the funny, relaxed guy he desperately wished he could be all the time.

And the kids. _Man, _he was good with the kids. If he had become a doctor, he would have been God's gift to pediatrics. He could coax them into taking their medications, assuage their fears before a surgery, make them laugh even when they were at death's door. The families of those kids looked at him like he was an angel for giving their child some measure of peace in the sterile, intimidating hospital environment.

That's why, when Aidan's shift ended, the first place he looked for Josh was in the children's ward. Out of habit, he glanced through the windows of the private rooms of the pediatrics unit as he walked, but Aidan could smell that Josh was in the main room. When he arrived, he looked through the large window and surveyed the familiar scene. A dozen beds, each occupied by a tiny human, lined the walls of the open space. It was brightly decorated, with balloons and toys and happy murals on the walls. Beside every bed was an exhausted and worried parent, though faint smiles could be seen as Josh worked his guileless magic on the room. The on-call doctor would occasionally glance at him with an affectionate, bemused twinkle in her eye before returning to her charts.

Aidan finally stood in the doorway and leaned against the frame, his arms crossed casually over his chest and a fond look cast at the oblivious Werewolf.

"Me next! Me next!" a little girl squealed joyously, bouncing while seated on her mattress. Aidan recognized her as a regular in the ward, due to an autoimmune disease, and one of Josh's favorite patients.

Josh shot a look at the girl's mother, who nodded in unspoken permission. Relaxing, Josh smiled at the little girl. "Alright, Livy, you're next, you're next!"

"Yay!"

"Now, you've got to hold still, okay? This is a very delicate - stop giggling, young lady! – very delicate and serious test. Ready?" Josh teased.

"Ready!" Olivia grinned, sitting up and holding perfectly still. Josh put a hand on the side of her head and gently pressed his lips to her forehead, letting them linger for a few seconds. He withdrew, humming and ahhing before Olivia got impatient and demanded, "Well?"

"99.4 degrees." Josh pronounced.

"Is he right, Doctor Young?" Olivia asked excitedly. The doctor came to the bed, shooting an amused smile at Josh, and then stuck a thermometer in the girl's ear. After a few seconds, a beep was heard and the doctor looked at the read-out.

Shaking her head and grinning, the doctor said, "99.4 degrees on the dot. Josh, you're six for six! That's pretty incredible."

"How'd you learned to do that, Josh?" Olivia asked.

"My mom always did it for me when I was a kid and she was never wrong. When she had my baby sister, I begged her to show me how. Emily was always sick as a kid, so I got a lot of practice."

"Who's next?" Doctor Young asked the room. A chorus of 'me me me!' went up through the room, but Olivia looked right at Aidan, pointed and shouted, "Him!"

The kids and parents all swiveled to look at him and Aidan grinned at the room. "I think Josh has more important patients than me."

"No, you!" Olivia insisted. The other kids tended to defer to her, as her frequent stays and legendary stubbornness had dubbed her the unofficial queen of the ward in the other children's eyes. As she continued to stare him down, the other kids started shouting and insisting right along with her. The parents eventually joined in, partially to see their kids happy. That, and Josh's suddenly flushed face and his uncomfortable squirming presented a good chance for them to tease him back.

"Alright! I'm going, I'm going!" Josh grumbled good-naturedly, throwing up his hands. The kids cheered and Josh approached Aidan slowly, eyes trained on his own feet.

"Sorry about this, man." Josh said under his breath, shooting the Vampire an apologetic glance from under his lashes.

"Well, Doc?" Aidan baited, enjoying Josh's discomfort as much as the other adults in the room.

"Ass." Josh muttered, grabbing the back of Aidan's head and pulling the slightly taller man's forehead to his lips. Josh's lips were like fire against his chilled skin and he felt Josh's hand slowly slide from the back of his head until it was pressed against the side of his neck, nearly cupping his jaw. It was all he could do to hold back a contented sigh and not lean into Josh's touch. Despite his active and satisfying sex life, the intimacy and tenderness of the gesture was something those encounters were always sorely lacking. It was a simple, soul-soothing comfort, one he hadn't experienced in a long time. He didn't even realize his eyes had fallen shut until the lips against his skin puckered slightly before withdrawing.

Quickly opening his eyes, they immediately met Josh's for half a second longer and with ten times more depth than was generally considered appropriate between dudes.

Blinking and looking away, Josh whispered, "94.7 degrees."

Then turning around and addressing the room, he announced dramatically, "A perfect 98.6! Boys and girls, I give you the picture of health, the master of wellness, a shining example of your health care system at work, Mr. Aidan McCollin!"

The adults laughed at Josh's antics and the kids resumed their cries of 'me next!', before Josh bowed and blew a kiss at the room. "Thank you! Thank you! Alas, no more tonight, but never fear! I'll be back tomorrow!"

Groans followed them as they left the room, walking side by side toward the exit.

"Cute trick." Aidan smirked.

"Aidan, you have no idea the tricks my mouth can do." Josh smirked back, continuing on even as Aidan jerked to a stop at the uncharacteristically witty and decidedly _dirty_ comeback. Jogging a few paces to catch up with his friend and throwing an arm over Josh's shoulders, he honestly had no idea what to say to that, so he settled for the ubiquitous, deadpan, ever versatile, "Dude."

Josh just shoved Aidan away and laughed. Aidan pushed him back, snorting when Josh tripped over his feet. Swearing vengeance, the Werewolf ran after him and Aidan gave chase, relishing the sound of their laughter and mocking taunts on the air.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**I loved hearing people's thoughts on the first chapter! Please take the time to review – it'll make my day!**

~Fate Harbor


	3. Mistletoe Horse

**Thanks to RainGoddess2040, B. Logan, WaffleNinja and TarotChild Conan for the great reviews! I loved hearing your thoughts on the story as well as the characters in general! Also, a big thanks to everyone who's put the story on alert!**

**Enjoy!**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Aidan felt a shift in the room and hid a grin behind his festively decorated glass of eggnog. The partygoers were getting antsy, constantly checking watches, pulling out cell phones, and glancing at the large wall clock for the time. The same thing happened every year at the annual Suffolk County Hospital Christmas Party as it got closer to nine o'clock.

The party always started at 7PM sharp. The first two hours were for polite conversation, congratulatory reflections on the past year, and the ever-present schmoozing and kiss-assery. But at nine o'clock, the real party started. That's when the Board of Directors and the Chief of Medicine made their gracious exits, feigning regret when turning down their underlings' half-hearted invitations to stay. They were the most powerful men and women at the hospital; they weren't stupid. They knew exactly what was going to happen at their departure, something they turned a blind eye to every year. They even subtly encouraged it in their own way, considering they never stayed longer than two hours, but nonetheless rented the place until 2AM.

Their kind of work was hard and it certainly took its toll. Though one night a year wasn't enough to erase the horrible shit they dealt with on a daily basis, the men and women at Suffolk County Hospital had built defensive walls against it all in order to create some semblance of a normal life for themselves; the annual Christmas Party had somehow become a cornerstone of those walls. These people were esteemed doctors, professional nurses, respectful orderlies and strict administrators – and for one night, they gave up those façades and acted with all the reckless abandon of horny sixteen year-olds whose parents went on vacation and forgot to lock the liquor cabinet.

By the time Aidan had come on board, the parties were already pretty wild. But the first year he was there, the now legendary Doctor Mauer had climbed up on the makeshift stage, grabbed the microphone and shouted, "This party is now under Vegas Rule, bitches!" He then proceeded to pound three shots in a row, stick his tongue down the throat of one surprisingly voracious accountant and then grind with said accountant to the beat of 'Yeah!' by Usher. Aidan was sure that, at any other company holiday party, the incident would have haunted Dr. Mauer for the rest of his career. But since everyone else at that party had taken up his philosophy of Vegas Rule like it was a god-damn war cry, the others made fools of themselves to the point where bringing up his indiscretion would result in the mutual annihilation of them all. So, they'd returned to work after the holiday without a single word or knowing look given to any of their coworkers, just the occasional, repressed grin at the secret they all shared.

And then they did it again the following year.

"Is this spiked with Crack or something?"

Aidan jumped in surprise as Josh suddenly appeared at this side, sniffing his own glass of eggnog.

"What?" Aidan asked, finding himself (not for the first time) baffled by Josh's random train of thought.

Josh pointed out into the crowd. "Look at 'em, they're all…jittery and anxious."

Aidan glanced at the clock on the wall, seeing it was 8:57PM. "Just give it five minutes."

"What happens in five minutes?"

Aidan grinned. This was Josh's first year with the hospital.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Doctor Mauer was pressed up against the glass window/wall of the third story banquet hall at precisely 9:03PM. He saw the various board members and the Chief get into their cars and, one by one, drive away. As the last car's tail lights disappeared down the road, he smirked. Jumping up on the stage, he grabbed the microphone as was his yearly tradition and nodded to the DJ.

"Ladies and Gentlemen." Doctor Mauer called out. The room instantly went quiet, though a buzzing energy of anticipation rippled through the crowd. As soon as he had their attention, he let a wicked grin spread over his face. Dipping the Mic like he would a lady in a tango, he screamed into it, "Welcome to Vegaaaaas!"

A massive cheer went up through the room and the DJ switched from easy listening to a thumping Club hit.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Aidan had lost Josh in the crowd and for the first couple of hours, it hadn't mattered. Josh had been pulled from his side by an attractive, little pixie of a woman, a bemused grin on his face as she'd dragged him away. Aidan himself was never wanting for female attention at these shindigs. With their inhibitions lowered and their blood alcohol content raised, they were bold and bordering on aggressive as they hungrily devoured him with their eyes. At the moment, he was sandwiched between Jessica, an orthopedic surgeon, and Raquel from payroll, rocking and grinding between them as they rubbed themselves all over his body in time with the thumping bass line.

He was thankful for the darkened room. The heightened pheromones and potently sexual moves of both women were bringing out his more lustful instincts, as evidenced by not only the slight bulge in his pants, but his solidly black eyes and extended fangs. Raquel was wrapped around him from behind and Jessica had her back to his chest, so neither woman was able to see his transformation, but the uninhibited mood of the room had him acting recklessly. He nuzzled his face into Jessica's neck, smelling the powerful aphrodisiac of her blood and sweat. He scrapped his teeth against her skin, so unbelievably tempted to sink his fangs into that jumping vein right there on the dance floor.

But his head snapped up as a sharp, familiar scent suddenly burned through his nostrils, overwhelming even Jessica's heady aroma. He'd once found it repulsive, but over time had come to realize it was an acquired smell, like coffee or wine was an acquired taste: something harsh and unpleasant at first blush, but highly addictive once a person developed a taste for it. He would know that smell anywhere.

Josh's blood.

Without a word to either woman, he slipped out of their grasps and walked briskly toward the scent, ignoring their pouting calls to come back. His vampiric eyes and fangs receded as his lust was replaced by something more powerful. It wasn't quite fear that gripped his heart, just an urgent, irrepressible drive to _find Josh now._ It wasn't as though he thought Josh was in serious danger here at this glorified kegger. But if he was in pain, no matter how minor, every cell in Aidan's body was demanding that he be there, as much for his own peace of mind as Josh's comfort.

Scanning the area the scent was coming from, he finally spotted Josh laughing with a group of people near the doors. Raking his eyes over Josh's form, Aidan found rivulets of blood dripping steadily from a cut in his palm, running down his fingers and finally splashing onto the floor, all seemingly unnoticed by the clueless Werewolf. Aidan's eyes narrowed and he stalked over to Josh. Grabbing his wrist with one hand and a pile of napkins from the buffet table with the other, he pulled Josh away towards an empty spot.

"Aidan, what the hell, man?" Josh cried, obviously a bit tipsy as he stumbled after him.

"You idiot!" Aidan snapped. "I leave you alone for two hours and you somehow manage to get hurt. At a party! In a room full of doctors, no less! How is that even possible?"

"Jesus, calm down! I'm fine!" Josh said, running into Aidan's back when the Vampire suddenly stopped. Aidan spun around to face him and lifted Josh's injured hand so it was six inches in front of the Werewolf's face. Josh was shocked and then confused as he looked at the blood coating his hand. Aidan, meanwhile, was transfixed as he held both of their hands up between them. His own hand was now stained with faint smears of Josh's blood. The scent of it on his skin was…

Aidan gave an inaudible moan and his vision drifted out of focus for a moment.

"Oh." Josh said, staring at his hand. "How'd that happen?"

"You tell me, genius." Aidan said, his voice huskier than he'd like. "It's your hand."

"Dunno." Josh shrugged, eyes still on his hand even after Aidan pressed a napkin firmly into the cut. "I helped Michelle pick up her glass, after she dropped it and it broke. Maybe then?"

Aidan rolled his eyes. "Ya think? Why didn't you just sweep –"

"Hey, everyone! Josh and Aidan are under the mistletoe!"

Aidan and Josh whipped their heads around toward the woman who'd made the gleeful announcement. Luckily, 'everyone' was limited because of the loud music, but a dozen people grinned at the words and descended on the unfortunate pair. In unison, both men glanced above them and saw an innocent sprig of mistletoe hanging above their heads.

"Oh, _fuck_ me." Josh groaned.

_Josh's body was slick and hot. The smell of him, the smell of _them_, the smell of sex and need and blood permeated throughout the room. Josh's rough, slightly tanned skin felt amazing pressed into the pale smoothness of his own. The scratch of his stubble, the heavy warmth of his panting breaths, the needy clawing of his hands at Aidan's back, it made a rush of lust pool in Aidan's gut. He needed this so bad. He needed to be inside Josh, to be surrounded by him, to have his field of vision and his entire fucking world be nothing but _him.

"_Oh, _fuck_ me." Josh growled, nipping roughly at the Vampire's earlobe. "Please, Aidan."_

Aidan shook his head, blinking rapidly against the image. Where the hell had that come from? It was disturbing…and painfully arousing. He scrubbed his face with his hands to try and snap himself out of it, but instantly regretted it. He nearly whimpered, having forgotten that Josh's drying blood was all over his hands and the smell was now directly under his nose. Bits of dried blood flaked off and were sucked inside his nostrils by a powerful inhalation.

God help him, he _did_ whimper then.

Luckily, no one was paying much attention to him. Aidan finally tuned into the conversation around him and found Josh trying to negotiate his way out from under the mistletoe.

"…because I'm Jewish, you see, so the whole mistletoe tradition doesn't really apply here." Josh explained, sounding a bit desperate to get his point across. "Plus we work together –"

"Vegas Rule." Someone from the crowd shouted, by way of shooting down that excuse.

"– not to mention the fact that we're both guys."

Someone else from the crowd, one of Josh's fellow orderlies named Nick, piped up. "Can it, Lisa! No one wants to see two guys macking on each other!"

"Anything they do, we'll do too!" Jessica shouted, pulling Raquel with her until they were both standing under the mistletoe with Josh and Aidan. From their completely intermingled scents, Aidan figured they hadn't missed him too much and had just carried on without him. The declaration drew quite a crowd, seeing two handsome men and two beautiful women about to make out; there was a little something for everyone!

Nick had an instantaneous change of heart and grinned at Josh. "Pucker up, Radcliff. And you better make it good, so that the _girls_ make it good."

"This isn't a game of HORSE!" Aidan yelled indignantly.

But the crowd had already started in on them. Men were pleading with them to do it, so they'd get to see real live babes making out. Women were shouting encouragements, their arousal heightening in anticipation of seeing the gorgeous men together. There were random shouts of, "Come on!" and "Kiss him!" and "Just do it!" The noise of the crowd was drawing in others and the sounds grew and grew until Josh buckled under the pressure.

Grabbing Aidan's head and pulling him down, Josh smashed his lips against Aidan's.

The crowd screamed in approval, as first the men and then the women started to make out under the mistletoe.

Like their first kiss, one Josh didn't even remember, Aidan's eyes snapped open in shock while Josh's were screwed shut. It took only a second for Aidan to sink into the kiss, changing it from a forced mesh of mouths to a steady friction of moving, moldable lips. Josh seemed to relax as Aidan took control and without planning or thought, their entire bodies moved into the kiss. Aidan wrapped an arm around Josh's waist. Josh gripped Aidan's bicep. Aidan slipped a hand to the back of Josh's head, carding his fingers through Josh's hair. Josh slung an arm around Aidan's neck, pressing into him until their bodies were inextricably intertwined.

The kiss itself revved up a little more every second: progressing from a brutal, formless clash to a curious exploration and finally becoming a frantic, desperate joining. Maybe it was the crowd and this was nothing more than them being persuaded by mob mentality. Or maybe Josh was drunker than he thought and submitting to the first body he came across, not necessarily caring that it was Aidan. Whatever it was, Aidan wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and he wasn't going to pretend that he was just doing this for the crowd. No, Aidan was doing this because he fucking wanted it. He was enjoying this; may as well start _showing_ it.

Backing Josh up to the wall, Aidan slammed the smaller body against it violently and swallowed the Werewolf's aroused moan as his mouth attacked his friend's. The crowd was going berserk, but all Aidan heard was a distant roar in his ears, almost entirely drowned out by Josh's beating heart, husky groans and the slick sounds of their lips. Grabbing the collar of Josh's button-down shirt, Aidan ripped the two lapels apart, causing the shirt to split down the middle and scattering buttons across the floor. He ran his hands up the white wife-beater underneath, moving from Josh's chest to his shoulders, then dragging his hands down the lean muscles of Josh's arms, stripping the destroyed shirt away as he went.

From behind him, he heard clothes dropping to the ground and assumed the girls were keeping their promise.

Josh, in a rare show of boldness, decided to return the favor. He fisted the back of Aidan's shirt in his hands and tugged it roughly. Aidan lowered his head as the shirt came up over his ears, allowing Josh to pull it off of him. Unlike Josh, he was left naked from the waist up, a fact his was extremely aware of when Josh's hands trailed over his chest and abs as the Werewolf immediately resumed their kiss.

The crowd was nothing short of hysterical now. His chest tended to do that to people. The two men continued to devour each other's mouths and Aidan felt his hips surge forward, apart from his conscious control, and grind into Josh's.

But even with the hands-on groping, the roaring of the crowd started to dissipate and he heard footsteps rapidly running toward the other side of the room. And then one shout tore their rapt audience away, in favor of a new show.

"CAT FIGHT!" Someone screamed. The crowd went wild. Aidan and Josh ripped apart, gasps torn from their swollen lips as they looked dazedly to where their audience had been. They looked over at Jessica and Raquel, both stripped to their bras and Raquel's skirt bunched around her waist. The girls looked just as dazed and then glanced over at them. Raquel buried her face into Jessica's shoulder as she giggled. Jessica started to laugh, which started Josh laughing and then all four of them were doubled over, cackling for no apparent reason other than their current situation – making out and stripping with their best friends, all because of fucking mistletoe – was completely _absurd_.

Aidan was glad it had gone down this way, with them all making light of it. Josh had a tendency to flip out over the little things, if sexually assaulting one's best friend in front of one's co-workers could be considered little. But when Aidan glanced over at Josh, he didn't see him freaking out. Instead, he looked contemplative, which Aidan knew was infinitely worse. Oh, the panic was still there, but momentarily set aside in favor of a heavier, more pervasive unease. Josh wasn't generally a thinker. Not to say that he wasn't intelligent, but he could be extremely impulsive and Josh giving deep, considering thought to anything meant he was disturbed beyond his usual level of social confusion.

Aidan didn't realize he was staring until Josh's eyes locked with his. Josh glanced away quickly. He didn't meet Aidan's gaze again. Instead, he swallowed convulsively, picked up his shirt and slid it over his shoulders. Being completely devoid of buttons, it hung casually off his frame. Giving Aidan a hearty, manly slap on the shoulder blade, a gesture that was an obvious overcompensation and completely un-Josh, the Werewolf followed the rest of the crowd.

Throwing over his shoulder, "I'll see you later, dude."

Great. One of the hottest make-out sessions of his life and he got called _dude_ after it. Fucking perfect.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

With charm he didn't usually possess, charm rooted in the determination of a man with something to prove, Josh went home with a tan, buxom blonde from the legal department.

If the woman Aidan spent the night with happened to have too-big, honey brown eyes, well…that had nothing to do with anything he was willing to admit to.

Neither did the fact that he still had Josh's bloodied napkins in his pocket.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

And so, the game of Mistletoe Horse was created and enthusiastically revived every year at the Suffolk County Hospital Christmas Party. By the time it was played the next year, Josh and Aidan were both long since passed the awkwardness that had ensued. Only a week after the incident, they'd found their house and added Sally to their dysfunctional little family, which proved to be just the distraction they'd needed. However, they both made themselves scarce when someone called for the game, which worked in their favor as two other same-sex pairs were roped into it. Instead, they were part of the rambunctious crowd, egging on the contestants.

The glances Aidan kept sneaking at Josh went unnoticed.

But then, so did Josh's glances at Aidan.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**Sooo...what'd you all think? Please read and review! **

****Yay, Aidan's finally kinda getting it! The romance is revving up a bit and it'll only keep growing! **Also, how do people feel about a rating change? Is 'T' doing it for ya, or are you wanting a nice, solid 'M'? Let me know and stay tuned…**

**~Fate Harbor**


	4. Come Back To Us

**Thanks so much to RaiineDays, Anatin123, RainGoddes2040, TarotChild Conan, Black Eyed Kids, Ayla Brown, Aslan is love, and Chibiboku for reviewing the last chapter! Also thanks to those who've put this story on alert! It always makes my day!**

**And now, on with the show...**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Sally sat at the edge of Josh's bed, using every ounce of concentration to move the dampened cloth from a bowl of cool water to the overheated Werewolf's forehead.

"Josh, this –" Sally started, only to be cut off by a pained moan. Sally lowered her voice to a whisper. "Josh, this isn't going to go away. You're getting worse. You need help!"

"Can't." Josh rasped, his neck muscles extended at an awkward angle. "Meningitis needs…lumbar puncture. Fluid…sent to a lab. Don't know…what they'd find. Can't."

"If it's meningitis –"

"It is."

"Then you could die!" Sally cried loudly, getting another agonized moan from Josh.

"Wolf…heals fast…" Josh panted, sweat soaking the sheets under him. His eyes were glazed and feverish when he cracked them open to look at her.

"You can't be sure the wolf will beat this on its own." Sally whispered.

"Has to." Josh ground out.

"At least let me get Aidan." Sally pleaded.

Josh barked out an odd wheeze that Sally assumed was meant to be a bitter laugh. "You'd have to…find him first. And he'd…have to care."

Sally clenched her jaw, all too aware of Aidan's recent abandonment. He hadn't been around in weeks, only ever coming home for a change of clothes. Even at work, Josh said he was distracted and hardly ever talked to him anymore. Where he slept, what he was doing, neither of them knew. Sally assumed it was something, well…Vampire, but that was no excuse! They were a family!

"I'll find him." Sally promised, silently swearing to herself that she'd rip him a new one when she did.

"He's probably…digging through garbage somewhere." Josh rambled, his eyes glassy and distant. "I…put up…posters, but I'm worried. It's not…like Charlie to be…gone so long. What if he's hurt, Mom?"

Sally's face fell as Josh started to hallucinate. Rewetting the cloth and laying it across Josh's forehead, she concentrated on Aidan and misted out of the room.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Popping up in the hospital, Sally found herself in a private patient room with two beds. The one closest to her was occupied by an unconscious young woman, but the other had the curtain drawn around it. Walking through it, Sally stopped in her tracks. Aidan was kneeling beside the bed, ravenously sucking at the patient's wrist, blood dribbling down his chin and his eyes closed in ecstasy. Sally felt her atoms vibrate with righteous anger. This is what they'd been abandoned for? So Aidan could break his own self-imposed rules, ignoring them while he was out indulging himself?

"Aidan, what the hell?" Sally yelled.

Abruptly jerking his head up, Aidan flung the limp wrist of the patient away from him and quickly wiped his mouth on his forearm. "Sally! What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing, feasting on some comatose patient?" Sally demanded.

Aidan returned her angry tone with one of his own. "None of your fucking business!"

"Is this why you haven't been home? Is this what you're doing now? Hanging out with your Vampire buddies and drinking yourself retarded?" Sally shouted.

"So what if I fell of the wagon?" Aidan sneered. "I'm a _Vampire_, Sally. This is what I do!"

"Chowing down on a cheesecake when you're on a diet is falling off the wagon, Aidan! Gorging yourself on blood and ignoring your family is a bit beyond that, you crack-head! You've chopped the wagon into kindling and set it on fire!"

"I wouldn't cast stones here, Miss I-can-quit-possessing-people-anytime-I-want." Aidan shot back.

"I can!"

"Well, so can I. I just don't want to. Familiar, isn't it?" Aidan smirked.

"Screw you, Aidan! This isn't just about the blood." Sally raged. "You don't talk to me, you ignore Josh, you're never home –"

"So what?" Aidan asked through an incredulous laugh. "We're all independent adults here, Sally! You certainly come and go as you please! Why can't I?"

"Because it's _hurting him_!" Sally screamed, stomping her foot.

"Josh is a big boy and he's got his own life. I'm sure he's fine." Aidan said, waving the notion away and moving toward the door.

"Aidan, he's dying!" Sally called after him desperately.

Aidan froze.

"What." Aidan's voice was flat and tense, his back still to her.

"He's been sick for two days. You'd know that if you'd been home. He's says it's meningitis."

Aidan spun around, horror on his face at Josh's self-diagnosis. "Is he sure? Tell me exactly what his symptoms are."

"Stiff neck, fever, headache, sensitivity to light and sound. And…"

"What?"

"When I left, he…he thought I was his mom. He started rambling about his lost dog." Sally responded, shaking her head. "He was totally out of it, Aidan. He says the wolf will heal him, but…"

Aidan whipped out his cell phone and started dialing.

"Who are you calling?"

"An ambulance." Aidan said through clenched teeth. "He needs a hospital, now."

"No!" Sally cried, rushing at Aidan and slapping the phone away with a concentrated burst of energy. "Josh said they might find something in his spinal tap. You know, something wolf-y."

Aidan stood rigidly, his nostrils flaring with barely controlled panic. Finally, he gave a curt nod. "Fine. You go home, stay with Josh. I'll be there in an hour."

"Aidan –"

"Go, Sally." Aidan snapped, softening slightly when he saw her worried face. "I'll take care of everything. Don't worry."

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Aidan rushed through the hospital doors and toward the parking lot, his backpack slung over his shoulder. Inside were all the materials he'd need to save Josh's life: a banana bag and analgesics in case it was viral meningitis and broad-spectrum antibiotics and corticosteroids in case it was bacterial. There was also an IV line, a tourniquet, a blood pressure cuff, and a stethoscope – he'd raided a supply closet for those. As for the drugs, he'd stolen those outright, charming the security guard into giving him the tapes of the theft.

Slinging the backpack into the front seat and starting the car, Aidan pulled out of the parking lot with his tires smoking and screeching in protest. As he drove the familiar route, he couldn't help berating himself. How could he not have known? Had he really been so distant? With his recent return to the Vampire fold, lured there by the ever-tempting Suren, he'd fallen into his old habits: drinking himself into psychotic episodes and hallucinatory stupors almost nightly, sleeping at the Halloway Hotel with Suren, spending his time plotting her reign. Had it really gotten so bad, that he'd neglected his friends? And not just any friend, but _Josh_?

It had been three years since that fateful night in the alley, but Josh had become the single most important person in his life. At times, it seemed like he was the only _real_ person in his life. All the Vampires were just sick parodies of people, leading thoughtless, selfish, empty lives and yet parading around as if it was some superior, glorious existence. Even Suren, for all her damage and vulnerability, was just as manipulative and superficial as the rest. And day by day, he was pulling further away from Josh and getting sucked into that perverse reality.

He'd been down that road before, had walked it for hundreds of years. God, what was he _doing_? Going back to that shallow excuse for a life, when he'd already had something worthwhile and meaningful? He had people, Josh and Sally, who made him feel good and whole, and he was giving that up to be a pawn in Suren's never-ending chess match with Mother? To be a leader in a community that sickened and enraged him?

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Aidan muttered, his hands in a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. Turning sharply on to his street, Aidan gunned the gas toward his house, slamming on the brakes and shoving the gearshift into park once his was in front of it. Rushing out of the car with the backpack, he ran up the steps and burst through the door.

"Sally?" Aidan yelled.

"We're in Josh's room!" she yelled back. Jumping the stairs three and four at a time, he flew down the hall and skidded to a halt at the door to Josh's room, struck immobile by the sight of him. Josh was drenched in sweat, his skin taking on a faint yellow color. He held his neck stiffly as he lay on his side, his eyes glassy and seeing things that weren't there. His breathing sounded thunderous in Aidan's ears. Every groan and whimper stabbed at Aidan as surely as if they were knives cutting into his skin.

"Jesus." Aidan breathed.

Sally turned to him with ghostly tears in her eyes. "He's getting worse. Aidan, you have to help him! Please!"

Aidan set to work with inhuman speed, throwing a picture off of the wall above Josh's bed and hooking the IV bag onto the nail. Efficiently and precisely, he set the peripheral IV line into Josh's vein and began the drip of antibiotics. He took his blood pressure, which was dangerously low and listened to his heartbeat, which was abnormally rapid. His temperature was 103.2 degrees.

"Well?" Sally paused in her pacing.

Aidan shook his head, placing the stethoscope around his neck. "It's bad, Sally. It's progressed pretty far, but the antibiotics should help if it's bacterial and they won't do any harm if it's viral. We should have a better idea of which it is in a couple of hours, depending on how he responds to the drugs. On the plus side, being a Werewolf has made his immune system damn-near unbeatable. If we're lucky, the drugs will give him the boost he needs to knock this out on his own."

"Well, what do we do now?"

Aidan sat on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees. "I'll monitor him. It's all I can do, until his condition changes."

"Aidan…" Sally started quietly, sitting beside him. "What if he –"

"Don't." Aidan interjected thickly, digging the heel of his palm into his eye socket. "Don't even say it."

Sally just nodded and got off the bed to continue her pacing. She lasted all of ten minutes before announcing, "I've got to get out of here. I can't just sit here, knowing I can't do anything for him!"

"It's okay, Sally. Go."

"You won't leave?"

Aidan winced at the accusation. "I swear."

"Your promises don't mean much these days." Sally snorted derisively, leveling him with an icy glare. "If your precious Vampire princess calls you away, if you leave his side for even a second and he dies, I will haunt you for the rest of your days, Aidan."

"You wouldn't have to." Aidan murmured, his eyes on Josh. _His death would haunt me to the grave_ went unspoken, but Sally heard it nonetheless. "Go, Sally. I'll stay with him."

She misted away without another word. Looking down on Josh's sickly form, Aidan wiped the sweat from the Werewolf's forehead with a damp cloth.

"I'm so sorry, Josh." Aidan sighed. "If I had been here, I would have recognized the signs, gotten you help sooner."

He stretched out onto the bed beside Josh, linking his hands behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. "I don't know what's happening to me. When we first moved in here, started living together, I was so sure of who I was. No, not who I was…who I _wanted_ to be. And I have never been closer to being that guy than when I'm with you. You make things…clearer, easier. Even with all of the shit you've dealt with since being Turned, you still know who you are and somehow that's all you need to keep the monster locked away. You keep others safe and you care about human life, even knowing how easily you could end one. You've never once been tempted by the raw power of that feeling. It's amazing to me, you know? I know that since that night in the alley, you've kind of looked up to me, maybe even had a dash of hero worship, but…Josh, that's just laughable. You are so much better than me, you feel things so deeply and God, you're the most empathetic person I've ever met. I've been dead for so long, but all your naïve optimism and your unshakable belief in what's right and having the guts to actually follow through on it…you're like CPR for the soul, man, always bringing me back from the darkness. So, you can't leave, okay? You can't leave me here to fight the dark alone. Hell, you've become the reason I even try, so if you die, so do I."

"I…" came the faint rasp from next to him. Aidan turned his head, seeing Josh's glossed-over eyes staring at him. "I…don wanna…go on the Ferris wheel. Let's go…to the food court."

Aidan gave a snort, which came out sounding like a choked sob. Seeing Josh like this, the strong one in all the ways that counted, was excruciating. Scooting over on the bed and curling an arm under Josh's shoulders, Aidan hugged the Werewolf to him. "Sure, Josh. We can go to the food court."

Josh burrowed into Aidan's body, relishing the refreshing chill of it. His face nuzzled into Aidan's neck, resting his forehead against it and sighing into Aidan's skin. Aidan swallowed tightly.

And when Josh kissed his collarbone, he gasped. Josh began to nip at the jutting bone, mouthing it with open-mouthed kisses, licking his flesh, scraping his teeth over it. Then he whined, "My snow-cone…ran out of flavor…there's no grape."

"The syrup tends to settle at the bottom." Aidan muttered absentmindedly, lost in the sensation. He didn't realize his asinine contribution to the conversation would have Josh licking and sucking at his skin with more determination, trying to find the non-existent grape flavor.

When Sally misted back into the room, that's how she found them. Josh was scraping his teeth against Aidan's collarbone and sucking at it, while Aidan was squeezing his eyes shut and fisting the sheet in his hand.

"Ahem." Sally voiced primly, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sally!" Aidan yelped, as Josh went to town on his collarbone. "He…he thinks he's enjoying a snow-cone."

"I'd say the snow-cone is enjoying it more." Sally shot back, eyebrow raised.

"I can't just shove him away. Who knows how his fragile psyche would twist that!" Aidan argued, suppressing a groan as Josh did something particularly inventive with his tongue.

"If you think I'm going to fall for that, you're more delusional than he is." Sally snorted. Walking to the bed, she crooned in Josh's ear. "Time for school, Josh. You have a test today."

Josh rolled away from Aidan, abandoning his county fair delusion. "But…I haven't studied…m'gonna fail!"

Sally straightened and shot Aidan a smug look. "Yeah, 'cause it would have been _really_ hard to distract him."

"It didn't occur to me." Aidan said through gritted teeth. While Josh continued to ramble to himself, Sally sat cross-legged on the bed.

"Are you ever going to tell him?" she asked.

"Tell him what?"

"That we're out of toothpaste." Sally deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "That you're in love with him, idiot!"

"I'm not in love with Josh!" Aidan denied vehemently. "It's just…really epic bromance."

"Uh-huh." Sally intoned sarcastically. "Come on, Aidan, it's not like you haven't gone for guys before."

Aidan sputtered. "When have I ever brought a guy home?"

"Never." Sally said flippantly. "But you are 257 years old. I'm sure there aren't many sexual boundaries you haven't crossed."

"Okay, so…_maybe_ there was a phase before I hit triple digits." Aidan admitted. Sally raised an eyebrow. "And a few dozen isolated incidents."

"Ha! So, I'm right!" Sally crowed.

"About me having been with other men before? Yes. About me being in love with Josh? No."

"So how do Vampires fall in love, anyway?" Sally asked, seeming genuinely curious and abandoning her 'Aidan hearts Josh' theory.

"Same as anyone else, I guess." Aidan shrugged. "But after living for so long, the physical things matter less and compatibility of spirit starts to matter more. It's just a body; when you see them more as food than people, things like gender, race, body type…it all becomes kind of irrelevant."

Sally repositioned herself on the bed, lying on her stomach with her chin resting on her hand. "So, what type of spirit do you look for? No pun or…eww, flirting intended."

"Someone who's not a Vampire, for one." Aidan stated firmly. As soon as the words escaped him, he knew that his toxic, co-dependent relationship with Suren was as good as dead. It filled him with an odd sort of freedom, consciously determining that she wasn't what he wanted. "Someone who's apart from that world, who actually cares about people and life, seeing it as the gift it is and who doesn't want to waste a single moment of it. They'd have to make me laugh, 'cause God knows I don't have much reason to. And I want someone I can protect, you know? Someone who needs me and who I can keep safe. Someone like that would remind me why I started the whole Vegan experiment in the first place. But at the end of the day, I guess the most important thing would be…someone I can talk to. Someone I can talk to about my life, all aspects of it, without being afraid that they'll run away screaming. Someone who believes I'm not a monster and whose faith in that makes me want to be better. Yeah…all that."

Sally stared at him, a triumphant glint in her eye. "It astounds me how you can deny being in love with Josh, considering you just described him to a tee."

"I did n–" Aidan stopped abruptly and Sally watched his expressions shift. His brow furrowed. His lips pursed. But then, slowly, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open. _Finally_, Sally thought. "Holy shit."

"Told ya." Sally smirked.

"Well…fuck." Aidan choked out, unusually tongue-tied. "No…I don't, I'm _not_…I didn't mean…fuck!"

"Men." Sally muttered, shaking her head.

"Sally?" a small, confused voice interrupted the silence.

"Josh!" Sally cried. He groaned at the volume as she went to his side. "I'm here. We're both here. You're okay, Josh. Everything's going to be fine."

"How do you feel?" Aidan asked. He checked the IV drip, though his mind was swimming as the force of his epiphany and the force of his denial battled in his brain.

"Aidan? You're here." Josh wheezed, sounding surprised. "Am…am I dreaming?"

"No, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." Aidan vowed, grasping Josh's hand. God, it felt _right_. His denial started to crack.

"Hurts…" Josh groaned.

"I know it does. But I'm here now." Aidan said, dabbing Josh's forehead with the damp cloth. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Missed…missed you." Josh slurred, before his eyes went glassy again and he fell back into a fitful, delirious state.

"Yeah…me too. I –" Aidan cut himself off and looked at Sally, his eyes betraying how lost he felt. Her lips quirked upwards and the words he'd almost said echoed in the silence between them.

_I love you_.

"Sally…" Her name came softly from his lips, at once a confession and a distraught plea. For all his worldly wisdom and life experience, for all the times he'd been in love before, he never thought such a simple realization could be so devastating to his equilibrium.

He was in love with his best friend. And he was coming unglued from the shock of it. It had probably been stirring in his subconscious ever since that first kiss and the pressure had been building steadily for three years. Three years of painful trials, somehow made easier because they were together. Three years of unshakeable camaraderie that was more than mere friendship, it was _home_. Three years of movie nights and private jokes and innocent touches and conversations, both deep and pointless. Three years of looking into those wide, trusting eyes and seeing the best version of himself reflected. All of it had been churning restlessly inside of him, waiting to be really, truly _seen_. And it had just exploded into his conscious mind with all the force of a volcanic eruption. His friendship with Josh, his self-definition, his entire world were all suddenly and irrevocably changed because of it. It was beyond overwhelming. It was fall-to-your-knees, struggle-to-breathe _shattering_.

"How…" Aidan trailed off, shaking his head. "How could I have missed this? Why didn't I see it before?"

"Maybe you weren't ready before." Sally shrugged, moving to sit beside him. She shot him an appraising, sidelong look. "Are you now?"

"Yeah." The word was out of his mouth before his brain had processed a conscious answer. The suddenness of the response surprised him, but not so much as the undeniable truth of it. He was wrong. Though it felt like it, his world wasn't shattering…it was finally coming together. Nodding firmly to himself and looking Sally square in the eye, he repeated himself. "Yeah. I'm ready."

"Say it." Her tone was soft, yet commanding.

"I'm in love with him. I'm in love with Josh." Aidan spoke, his voice breathless, terrified, amazed, excited, flabbergasted, contented.

Sally nodded once, strongly. "Damn straight, you are. Now, all that's left is to get you your man!"

The determined glint in her eye scared him more than he cared to admit. "Ohhh, no. No, no, no. No matchmaking, no dropping hints, no involvement from you whatsoever!"

"I find it adorable that you think you have a say in this."

"I hate you."

"You love me." Sally declared, waiving his statement away dismissively.

"I love…snow-cone…" Josh murmured deliriously, his fever-clouded eyes looking in their direction but seeing straight through them.

"Of course you do, sweetie." Sally soothed, before grinning wickedly at Aidan. "Sally'll see about getting you a mouthful."

"Mmm, yum." Josh moaned quietly. "Flavor…s'good."

"I hate you so much right now."

"Don't be that way, Aidan." Sally smirked. "We'll get you a mouthful, too."

If anyone had asked Aidan why he groaned just then, he would have said it was because Sally was being an annoying pest. It absolutely was _not_ because he was fantasizing about Josh's moan and Sally's promise in the same scenario.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**YAY, AIDAN GETS IT! I couldn't help myself from writing delirious!Josh, it was too fun! So, I'm dying to know what you guys thought…did I capture Sally well? How did Aidan's epiphany sit with y'all? The next chapter is going to have some steaminess to it and a bigger element of the supernatural…I hope you guys like it!**

**Also, for the 'One Time Aidan Kissed Josh' chapter, part of me wants to continue in Aidan's perspective since the story has been a growing process from him thus far, but part of me wants to write Josh's side. Thoughts? Preferences?**

**Please read and review, I really value your guys' input!**


	5. Wow

**Wow, the reviews for the last chapter really blew me away! Loving shout-outs go to Anatin123, TarotChild Conan, XxrockyxX, RainGoddess2040, ObviousSubtext, yaoigirl22, nekokira3224, WaffleNinja, Nina, and SabaChan607! Thanks so much for your input and reviews, they really mean a lot to me.**

**Anyway, onto the next chapter! I hope you guys like it!**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Aidan drove home from his shift at the hospital, his thoughts drifting as he mindlessly followed the familiar streets. It had been six weeks since he'd admitted to himself that he was in love with Josh and he'd slowly started to rearrange his life to accommodate that fact. He'd begun the delicate, political process of extracting himself bit by bit from Suren's empire. There were his carefully placed encouragements, at once self-deprecating and flattering to Suren ("Suren, you don't need me. You're Boston's leader; you're Royal, for God sakes! You have the wisdom of a hundred lifetimes behind you, while I'm barely older than the Vampires you're trying to rein in. You can _do _this, Suren."). He'd facilitated introductions between Suren and Vampires he knew she'd be drawn to. When those Vampires had ideas for Boston, he made subtle suggestions to flesh them out, turning them into refined plans that would impress Suren. He then encouraged the Vampires to bring their thoughts to her directly, so that she would start turning to others for advice instead of him. She was quickly becoming disillusioned with him, seeing him as weak and unimaginative. She'd lost all interest in their twisted relationship and she was initiating her own plans aimed at gradually replacing him. He was all too happy to slide out from under her thumb.

He'd also returned to his IV bags, after finding a new source at a blood bank. Yes, he'd had to charm one of the phlebotomists into keeping some blood-packs off the books and setting them aside for him, but using his powers of persuasion really was the lesser of two evils here. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do, weaning himself off of live blood – again. But with Josh's recent brush with death, he found the strength to power through the agonizing side effects. Luckily, Josh was still recovering from his illness while he was detoxing. He never saw Aidan tremble violently or snap at Sally and then cry into the couch cushions through his unpredictable mood swings. He never heard Aidan groan and grit his teeth through the unmerciful headaches or shuffle through the house at all hours of the night to battle his insomnia.

By the time Josh had completely recovered, so had Aidan. And that was when the real work began.

Since Suren had come back to Boston, he'd done heavy damage to his friendship with Josh: ignoring him, mocking him, treating him like an annoyance, dismissing his concerns, all with the callous air of someone who just plain didn't care about him. He'd wished that Josh would just yell at him, storm out of the house in a fit of rage, break something, drink something, _anything_. Instead, he was treated to hesitant glances and skittish body language, awkward conversation and outright avoidance. But the more time passed, the better things got. Aidan spent more time at home, sought Josh out at work and made an effort to let Josh into his world again. Slowly but surely, he was gaining Josh's trust back.

Sally, bless her heart, was doing her best to mend the fences between them. She'd accepted him back without a word, as far as Josh knew. Of course, Josh had been either delusional or absent when the screaming matches had gone down between them; he and Sally knew the score, but that was water under the bridge. Her help came with a price, though, which was letting her pester and push him into telling Josh the truth. Which he hadn't and wouldn't, not yet anyway.

Not that it stopped her from dropping hints like bombs during an air raid. He'd never been more thankful for Josh's cluelessness than he had been these past weeks. Sally was about as subtle as a bulldozer, but even her efforts couldn't quite break through Josh's astounding lack of social awareness. And God knows, she'd tried…

**XXXXXXXXXX**

"_I'm sorry, but how am I supposed to take this seriously?" Sally cried, waving her arms at the TV. _

"_It's sci-fi, Sally, you're not supposed to take it seriously." Aidan sighed, bored out of his mind with the movie. Instead, he was entertaining himself by sneaking sidelong looks at Josh and smiling to himself at the Werewolf's unbridled, awed enthrallment. _

"_Yeah, you're just supposed to get lost in the fantasy!" Josh was positively riveted by the movie. "What's so hard to believe about it?"_

_Sally and Aidan stared at him, glanced at each other, and then went back to Josh, whose eyes were glued to the screen. Sally gestured to Aidan as if to say 'by all means, _you_ take this one!' "You mean besides the fact that there are aliens, time travel, doomsday technology and parallel dimensions all in the same movie?"_

"_Each acting as an integral part of the awesomeness that is Star Trek?" Josh countered. "Then yeah, I mean besides that."_

_The scene shifted on screen and Sally grinned mischievously. Aidan caught the look from his periphery and glanced back at the TV. Immediately, he knew what Sally was thinking. Behind Josh's back, he shook his head and frantically tried to wave her off her current course. Sally's grin just widened, before being replaced by her previous skeptical look._

"_See, that right there!" Sally pointed to the screen. "How can I get into the story when they throw ridiculous plot points like _that_ out there?"_

_On screen, Spock and Uhura were kissing on the transporter pad as Captain Kirk looked away uncomfortably. Josh spared Sally a glance before going back to the TV. "What's wrong with it?"_

"_What's wrong with it?" Sally repeated incredulously. "Anyone with two eyes and a gaydar can see that Spock and Kirk have raging hard-ons for each other!"_

"_What?" Josh scoffed. "That's ridiculous. They're bros, Sally."_

"_Yeah, I heard somewhere that constant eye-sex is the new fist bump." Sally shot back sarcastically. "All bros are doing it. Which would explain you and Ai–"_

"_Sally!" Aidan barked, cutting her off. Josh paid their bickering exactly as much attention as ever, meaning none at all, and so missed Sally's implication. "Josh is the Trekkie here, not you. If he says they're just friends, then they're just friends."_

"_Really epic bromance, huh, Aidan?" Sally smirked, throwing his own denial back at him. Aidan clenched his jaw and shot her a warning look. _

"_Exactly!" Josh agreed. _

"_Well, guys would hardly admit when two other guys are sweet on each other." Sally sniffed. "They get all nervous and insecure around homosexuality."_

"_Well, if I did, that would make me a fucking hypocrite." Josh shrugged, eyes still on the TV._

_At Josh's pronouncement, Sally's eyes went wide and Aidan's jaw fell open. Josh had gone out with girls since they'd known him, but could he really be…was he actually…did Aidan have a real shot here?_

"_W-what –" Sally stuttered for a moment, still in shock. "What do you mean?"_

_Josh looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean, what do I mean? My sister is gay."_

"_Ohhh." Sally and Aidan said together, a harmonic mix of realization and disappointment. Sally wasn't quite ready to give up such a promising line of conversation, though. "Was it weird for you, when she came out?"_

_Josh snorted. "No. We knew she was gay even when she was a toddler. From the time she was three years old, she was saying that she would marry a woman. Her barbies always married each other and Ken just gathered dust in the toy box. Well, his body did. We never did find his head."_

"_What about you?" Sally asked, sly curiosity in her tone. "Did you ever consider it? You know, being with a guy?"_

_Aidan shot her a scathing look, but he couldn't deny that he was curious too. By the way Sally winked at him, Aidan thought she could probably tell._

_In a moment that could almost be described as telepathic, Aidan absolutely _knew_ that Josh was thinking about the never-to-be-spoken-of-again Mistletoe Incident. Aidan certainly was. Josh swallowed tightly, his Adam's apple bobbing with the effort. His vision still didn't waver from the TV screen, but Aidan could see it was more about determination than fascination at this point. Josh tried to shrug the question off casually, but the gesture was tense and jerky. "If I ever felt that way about a guy, I wouldn't fight it. I know what happens when you restrict yourself like that. Emily went through a phase when she tried to be 'normal', be into guys, but all she got out of it was a case of depression and her first hangover."_

"_And?" Sally asked eagerly. "Have you ever been attracted to a guy?"_

"_I have a confession to make." Josh started sheepishly. He took a deep breath and placed a hand over his heart. "I'm wildly, passionately in love with Creepy Larry and want him to whisk me away on his floor-waxer. There, I've said it! At last, our love can run free!"_

_The movie was abandoned, as was Sally's semi-serious interrogation, and the three of them started cracking up as Josh recited an impromptu sonnet, 'Ode to Creepy Larry: Custodian of My Love'. It wasn't until after Josh had gone to bed, leaving Sally and Aidan alone, that Sally realized something._

"_He never really answered the question, did he?" _

_Aidan shook his head. "No."_

"_That sly bastard!" Sally muttered._

**XXXXXXXXXX**

After that, Sally had talked him up constantly to Josh, stopping just short of composing her own ode to Aidan's striking good-looks. It was a good plan in theory, except that it had totally blown up in her face. After a week of Sally enumerating his many fine qualities to the confused Werewolf, Josh had cornered him when Sally was out of the house. And so began one of the most bizarre conversations of his life, as Josh _enlightened_ him that their female roommate 'has the ghostly hots for you, Aidan' and that he really needed to 'let her down easy and preferably away from the house, so that we don't have to buy new dishes again'. He'd nearly choked on his own tongue to keep from bursting out laughing, but once Josh had left and Sally misted back into the house, he'd nearly retched from the force of his laughter while pointing at her reddening face. Sally was not amused, but at least she'd stopped trying to force things from Josh's end. Instead, she'd refocused on him and badgered him at every opportunity.

In fact, Aidan was surprised he'd gotten this much alone time without her incessant –

"Hey." Sally misted into the passenger seat.

"Bah!" Aidan yelled, jumping in his seat. Speak of the fucking Devil. "Don't do that! You nearly ran me off the road! You couldn't wait until I got home?"

"This is the only chance I have to talk to you without Josh around." Sally shrugged, unrepentant as ever. "So, tonight's the full moon. Are you going to tell him?"

"Sally, please, not now." Aidan nearly begged. "I've been on-call for the past two days. I haven't even been home to shower or feed! I'm starving and all I want is a little peace and quiet."

"Aidan, come on!" Sally whined. "It's been over a month since you figured it out. How can you just sit here, doing nothing about it? Now that you know, don't you just want to _attack_ him?"

"I'm sure I can refrain from pouncing on him." Aidan said dryly. "With immortality comes amazing powers of self-restraint."

"But why restrain yourself when you can just tell him?"

"Really, Sally? Just tell him? Like it's that fucking easy?" Aidan snapped, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "How can I possibly tell Josh – the melodramatic, easily panicked, romantically awkward Werewolf – that I am a) suddenly bisexual b) totally hot for him and c) not just sexually attracted to him, but so in love with him I can barely make it through my shift without seeing him? Yeah…that would go over _great_."

"Well..." Sally started, a shred of optimism in her tone before she deflated. "Okay, I guess I can see your point."

"Look, you may be otherworldly now, but you're still young and impatient. This is going to take time, okay? I have to pick my moment carefully. You don't know Josh like I do. If I go at him, guns blazing, he'll freak the hell out."

"Well, what if you just gradually get him used to the idea. You know, make him feel comfortable around you –"

"Sally, I used to see him naked every month when I picked him up after the full moon. I think he's comfortable around me."

" –do nice, thoughtful things for him –"

"I routinely save his life _and_ I take out the garbage. Check."

"–be a bit more physical with him –"

"It's not like we haven't kissed before."

"Wait, what?"

"Nothing." Aidan said quickly.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Sally grinned, shifting in her seat to face him. "Start talking! I want every last detail."

"Not a chance." Aidan shook his head. "It falls under Vegas Rule."

"And who exactly could I tell?" Sally asked sarcastically.

"Josh! You wouldn't be able to help yourself from teasing him!"

"If you don't tell me, I'll force it out of Josh." Sally threatened. "I promise you, it'll be pleasant…but only for me."

"Fine." Aidan rolled his eyes. "We got dragged under the mistletoe at the Christmas Party two years ago. Happy?"

"The hospital's Christmas Party? As in the 'wilder than Mardi Gras and Spring Break combined' Christmas Party?" Sally laughed. "Oh, this is awesome! Tell me everything! I know it wasn't just a peck; your co-workers are like rabid dogs when it comes to sniffing out sex and violence at those things."

"No, it wasn't just a peck." Aidan grumbled.

"Sooo?" Sally prompted.

Aidan huffed, keeping his eyes focused intently on the road. "We made out...heavily. And it's possible that we both lost our shirts at some point. And there may have been some dry humping there at the end."

"Oh! Oh, God! It's too good!" Sally cackled in delight.

"Not a word! I mean it, Sally!" Aidan insisted. "Josh would feed me to his wolf if he knew I told you."

"Well, it doesn't sound like he was putting up a fight." Sally grinned, watching as Aidan gripped his rumbling stomach. "You okay?"

"I told you, I haven't eaten in two days. I'm starving." Aidan replied, turning onto their street and parking in front of the house. Turning to Sally, he continued, "We're home, so we're done talking about this."

"Okay, okay!" Sally said, putting her hands up defensively. "God, you're such a grouch when you're hungry."

Aidan jogged up the stairs to the house and let Sally in first, closing the door after himself and immediately making his way to the kitchen.

"Josh, we're home!" Sally called up the stairs before trailing after Aidan.

"Be down in a sec!" Josh shouted back.

Aidan nearly ripped off the door of the fridge in his haste and grabbed the first IV bag he saw, biting into the plastic and draining it. His eyes fluttered closed in pleasure and he groaned.

"Eww." Sally wrinkled her nose as trails of blood ran from the sides of Aidan's mouth. "Slow down, it's not going anywhere."

"Two days, Sally." came Aidan's gurgled reply around a mouthful of blood. After emptying the first bag, he threw it into the garbage and immediately started on a second. Uncaring of Sally's disgust or any pretense of manners, he consumed it greedily. Blood now completely coated his mouth and chin, streaming down his neck in rivulets.

Josh's voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs, quickly moving closer. "Hey Aidan, I'm heading out to the storage unit soon. Can you give me a lift? Curtain goes up in an hour, so I should…"

Aidan finished his second bag and pulled it away from his mouth, gasping for air and running his tongue over his blood-soaked fangs. At the same moment, Josh entered the doorway of the kitchen, his voice trailing off and his heavy-lidded gaze fixed on Aidan. Something fell from Josh's hand and landed on the floor with a metallic clink; a gleaming Star of David could be seen resting atop the coiled chain.

"Hey." Aidan panted, still catching his breath. "You need a ride?"

Josh didn't respond and in fact, he didn't appear to have heard Aidan at all. His eyes were intense and dark, staring at Aidan's mouth. A rumbling sound filled the room and it took Sally and Aidan a moment to realize it was coming from Josh. An animalistic, rasping growl started deep in Josh's throat, vibrating along his vocal chords and then rising in volume when it finally entered his mouth. Josh curled his lips back, baring his teeth, and as he parted his mouth, the sound grew into a deep, low snarl.

"Josh…" Aidan dragged his name out and eyed him warily. "You okay?"

"Aidan, the blood!" Sally whispered frantically, her wide eyes locked on Josh. "He's Changing in less than an hour!"

Aidan glanced at the spent blood-pack in his hand and felt thick streams of blood dripping down his chin. His eyes widened, realizing he'd never fed this close – or this sloppily – to Josh's Change before. Scrutinizing Josh, whose unwavering concentration was still on his mouth, Aidan realized the wolf was extremely close to the surface and provoked by the smell of blood, to the point where Josh may not be in control right now. This close to the full moon, Josh was much stronger than he was and Aidan wouldn't be able to fight him off, not without seriously injuring both of them in the process.

"Josh." Aidan repeated, standing perfectly still. "You need to snap out of it. Take control, man. Come on, Josh, you can do this."

Again, Josh didn't respond. Instead, he began a slow, rocking prowl towards Aidan, his eyes clouded with bloodlust and visceral instinct.

"Do something!" Sally squeaked.

Aidan was no coward, but there was a reason relations between Werewolves and Vampires were tense at best. Werewolves were the only creatures that could overpower and kill Vampires; they were feared, and therefore hated, above any other threat to their community. One survival instinct had been pounded into Aidan's skull since his infancy as a Vampire: when confronted by a Werewolf this close to the full moon…run.

With inhuman speed, Aidan tried to race from the room, but with equally inhuman reflexes, Josh's arm shot out and caught him in the chest, throwing him backwards into the kitchen like a rag doll. He flew through the air in a high arc and landed on top of the table with a thud, his back aching from the impact. He could hear Sally's scream mix with his own pained grunt. He managed to sit up, but was instantly knocked onto his back again, this time by Josh's weight on top of him.

He struggled to move, thrashing wildly in an effort to gain any measure of leverage against the Werewolf, but he was hopelessly pinned. Josh's body was lined up with his from head to toe. Both of Josh's knees were pressed into the outside of his thighs, effectively trapping his legs. Any wiggle room he might have found was nullified by Josh's hips pushing heavily into his, concentrating the majority of his body weight on the hinge-point. Their stomachs and chests were in full contact; he could feel Josh's ragged, shuddering snarls vibrate against him. One of Josh's hands had his arm pinned to the table by the elbow and the other buried itself into Aidan's hair.

When he was finally rendered helpless and subdued, as any predator prefers their prey, Aidan squeezed his eyes shut and prepared himself for the pain of ripping flesh and gnawing teeth and raking claws. Instead, he felt the hand in his hair snap his head violently to the side – his vision blurred at the sharp pain of it – and then Josh's lips were on him, lapping and sucking at the blood running down his neck.

Aidan's eyes flew open as Josh's tongue dipped into the hollow of his throat and savagely nipped at his Adam's apple. His mouth was everywhere – licking, sucking, biting, scraping, kissing, slurping – feasting on the residue of Aidan's last meal. It was overpowering, the feel of Josh pressing into him, devouring him, _dominating_ him as he'd never imagined. These past weeks, he'd constantly fantasized about taking Josh hard and hot over the kitchen table, reckless and quick in the supply closet at work, agonizingly slow and deep in his bed. But this, being taken himself by a primal, regressed, _animal_ Josh, was a scenario that hadn't even occurred to him. But now that he was in it, experiencing it, the raw carnality of it consumed him wholly.

All Aidan could see, feel, smell, was Josh. All his senses were saturated by him and nothing else. Josh's pupils were blown wide, the darkness of them eating into the shrinking irises. There was an overpowering tempest of hungry desire flashing inside of them: potent, wild and nearly seductive in its magnetism. His skin was flush with exertion and frenzy, the heat of it sizzling into Aidan's flesh like Indian summer sunlight. Staccato, snorting huffs from his nostrils and panting, feral breaths from his throat shot bursts of sultry air across Aidan's skin. His mouth trailed from his neck to his chin and when Josh's lips finally crushed themselves onto his, Aidan couldn't help bucking his hips upwards into Josh's.

Josh gave a deep, aroused growl into Aidan's mouth at the friction and began to rut against Aidan with jolting, deliberate thrusts. The solid length of him drove relentlessly into Aidan's own painfully hard erection, causing him to moan into Josh's mouth. Aidan lifted his head from the table and used his free hand to cup Josh's jaw, pushing himself even further into their kiss. Their mouths moved together roughly and desperately, lips being bruised in the clash, until the blood and saliva and breath of both men were utterly intermingled.

Josh's hands suddenly tore through his shirt like it was tissue paper, his nails tearing into Aidan's skin in the process. The cutting pain only added to Aidan's arousal and one of his hands gripped Josh's ass, forcing their joining to a new, frenzied pace as Aidan ground their pelvises together. Josh became positively crazed at the action, moving his hands to Aidan's hips and holding them in an iron grip as he once again took control of their movements. Josh's mouth tore into his with brutal strength, demanding supplication and submission, even as he reached one hand down to the crotch of Aidan's pants. He literally tore the button off of his jeans and yanked the zipper down.

"Holy hell, Josh." Aidan groaned, lifting his hips sharply.

Josh, or rather his wolf, clearly didn't care for Aidan's mouth being used for any purpose other than its current occupation and made its displeasure known. One hand buried itself anew in Aidan's hair, forced his head to the side and Josh bit down on the juncture of his shoulder and neck – hard. Teeth ripped through his flesh and without any warning, Aidan came violently as his orgasm overtook him. He screamed hoarsely, intoxicated by the combination of pleasure and pain.

Josh's savage growls continued against his neck as he lapped up the new source of blood and he pounded his hips into Aidan's. Suddenly, Josh raised himself onto his arms, locking his elbows. His hips stuttered into Aidan's a few more times, a low roar building with each thrust. Then he threw his head back, his mouth stained bright red with blood and raised to the sky, and _howled_ as he came.

Aidan had never seen a more erotic sight in his life and felt himself hardening again. He couldn't help himself from complying with the instinct running through his body. Wrapping an arm around Josh's waist, Aidan hauled himself into a sitting position and sunk his fangs into Josh's extended jugular vein. Josh's howl, the cry of a conqueror, was cut off and became the yelping whine of a kicked puppy. But Aidan didn't stop. He couldn't stop. The blood pouring into his mouth was invigorating, primeval, satisfying in a way human blood, live or not, had never been. There was a spice, an irresistible additive, that made him ravenous for more.

But, all too quickly, Josh's hands came to his chest and shoved him away. The momentum knocked Aidan onto his back again and sent Josh flying backwards off the table.

The room was silent for a moment. Aidan was heaving in great gulps of air as Josh's blood seared through his veins. His body gave the occasional shudder as the aftershocks of his orgasm trembled through him. One hand flew to his neck, where Josh had bitten him. Pressing into the wound to stop the bleeding had the unforeseen side effect of making his cock twitch. He wasn't sure how long he laid there, as his awareness of time had suddenly slowed to a trickle, but it was probably mere seconds.

When Josh's head popped up from below the table, he looked confused and terrified and like _Josh_ again. When their eyes met, Aidan felt his cock give another strong jerk. But there was no time for his more lustful reactions, as the color bled away from Josh's face and he looked beyond horrified. He scrambled away from Aidan, landing on his ass before getting up quickly.

"Oh my G – what the he – Jesus Chr – Aidan, I'm so –" Josh had never looked so lost as his eyes raked over Aidan's body. Aidan was sure he looked absolutely ravaged, in more ways than one: shredded shirt, deep and angry bite mark, scratches on his chest, fingertip bruises on his hipbones, blood stains all over, extended fangs, solid black eyes, panting gasps, and a suspicious wet stain on his half-open jeans.

Josh had a look in his eyes like a cornered animal and his gaze darted all over the room, finally landing on Aidan's car keys. Snatching them and bolting from the room, Josh called over his shoulder with a panicked, hurried tone, "I'll bring your car back tomorrow! I gotta get to the shed!"

The front door slammed before he'd finished and Aidan could hear Josh's garbled, continued excuses fading down the steps even after it was closed. For the first time in a long time, everything was still.

"Holy _crap_, that was hot!" came Sally's breathless voice.

Huh. He'd forgotten Sally was there. Aidan shifted his head on the table, until he could see a slightly upside down version of her. One hand was on her heaving chest, the other was fanning her face and she was pressed up against the kitchen counter as though her legs were too weak to support her alone. Instead of responding, he moved his head in the sluggish imitation of a nod and then went back to staring at the ceiling. "Aidan? You in there? Say something!"

Aidan blinked slowly, moving one hand behind his head and the other to his stomach. Running his tongue along his lips and tasting Josh's blood, Aidan smirked lazily. "Wow."

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**I have to admit, I made myself kind of hot with this one! So, now that you've gotten a taste of some Aidan/Josh loving, I'll revisit my previous question: M rating? Yay? Nay? I know some people might have rated this M, but I consider everything short of actual, in-and-out sex to be T still. Let me know what you think! **

**And how do you want to see the big confession happen? Wildly romantic gesture, heartfelt confession, down and dirty sexing, life-or-death revelation, something else?**

**Please read and review!**

****_**Update 3/13/12** Rating changed to M because the above steaminess is too close to call in the T/M debate and my reviewers have persuaded me to err on the side of caution ;) Good call, y'all!_****


	6. About Last Night

**You guys, I'm literally overwhelmed by all the amazing reviews for the last chapter. The readers of this fandom are seriously the absolute BEST! Thanks so much to XxrockyxX, yaoigirl22, Anatin123, GorgonsGaze, ObviousSubtext, TarotChild Conan, RainGoddess2040, randompast, WaffleNinja, Nina, RaiineDays, Emeralden Rapley, fange17, B. Logan, Yaoilunarangel, Jen2012, Shy Paranoia, sweet co, Motaku1235, XxFakeDavidxX, and roxxihearts! Thanks also to everyone who put the story of alert or favorite and for those of you who've stuck with the story.**

**Here it is, the final installment, wherein Aidan Kisses Josh…**

**Enjoy!**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

"Bullshit." Aidan smirked.

"You suck." Sally sighed, concentrating hard and picking up the pile of cards.

"Vampire." Aidan deadpanned, throwing down a pair of cards. "Two threes."

Sally snorted. "That was _so_ beneath you. You may be good at cards, but your comebacks need work. One four."

"Bullshit."

"Damn it!" Sally groused, picking up the pile.

"I was calling bullshit before your great-great-great grandparents were in diapers. You're hopelessly outgunned."

"Oh, yeah, old man?" Sally challenged. "How about something a bit more modern? Like…Speed?"

Aidan drew back in surprise. "Your control is that good?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out." Sally shot back cheekily. She carefully positioned the cards in her hands and released them into a sloppy shuffle, her tongue poking out the side of her mouth as she focused.

They'd been up all night, occupying the time however they could. Currently, they were playing cards on Aidan's bed. They'd been playing cards for months now, as a way to hone Sally's tactile skills, but Aidan had a feeling this time was more for his benefit than hers. And honestly, if Sally was corporeal, he'd kiss her for it. He would've driven himself crazy by now, if not for her attempts at distraction. Last night was Josh's Feral Frottage Freak-Out (as Sally insisted on calling it) and he couldn't stop thinking about it. He wasn't really _here_ and hadn't been all night, not when his thoughts were constantly bouncing between the memory of last night and the resulting, unavoidable fall-out that was sure to come.

When his mind strayed to last night's encounter, he didn't just think about it; oh no, he _relived_ it – every detail in all its steamy, tantalizing glory. He'd known Josh was fine as hell ever since they first met, but he'd always thought that this (silent) opinion of his was an objective, one-dude-appreciating-another assessment.

God, he was such a moron.

He should have known better the first time he saw Josh without a shirt. Three days after meeting him, he'd bumped into Josh in the hallway of his old apartment as the Werewolf stepped out of the bathroom. Aidan had taken in the sight for a split second before moving past him – a towel slung low on his jutting hipbones, steam rising from his skin as his heated flesh made contact with the cool air, beads of water streaking down his defined pectorals and hard, cut abs. And in that split second, his brain had short-circuited and one word was drawn out by his consciousness until it was the only thought left in his head.

_Daaamn._

Honestly, when he thought about that, Aidan was kind of embarrassed that it had taken him three years to figure this out. _Daaamn_ was about as far from an impartial evaluation as one could get.

But even with his not-so-objective appreciation of Josh's body and the enticing teaser that was the Mistletoe Incident, nothing could have prepared him for the potent, visceral chemistry between them last night. Sex had become something of a mindless activity for him; he'd never really kept count, but if forced to guess, he'd put the number of times he'd had sex well over the 20,000 mark. With that kind of repetition, even something as pleasurable as sex could become rote and boring at times. It was a dance whose steps were familiar, monotonous and unchallenging and whose purpose was more about release than any expectation of happiness.

But with Josh…there was the long-forgotten urgency and desperation of _please/god/now/harder/fuck me/Yes!/OHGODMOREDON'TSTOP!_ – the kind of manic, blissed-out sexual rampage that feels like you'll die without it, like you _do_ die when you get it because it's so good your body can't stand it and it's ethereal in its ecstasy and physical in its rawness and you want to wrap yourself in that moment forever and Christ, he _really _needed to stop thinking about this before he had to go jerk off in the bathroom again.

So, yeah…sexual compatibility? Check. Carnal lust? Check. Need for a repeat performance so bad that it _aches_? Hell fucking yes and the sooner, the better.

But if he knew Josh, and Aidan liked to think he did, then 'sooner' wasn't in the cards.

Today was the day – the day they both stopped running, both stopped denying and hashed this thing out once and for all. They were going to talk; it was inevitable. Although Josh's natural talent for denial was even more impressive than Aidan's own, not even he would be able to dismiss last night's events. It couldn't be shrugged off as the result of some juvenile dare or as being influenced by alcohol or illness. Maybe Josh hadn't been in his right mind, but the passion was far too powerful to be written off like their previous kisses. Even with the wolf's rage and hunger clouding his mind, he _had_ to have felt something. And even if Josh did somehow manage to convince himself that his own behavior was solely because of the wolf, that wouldn't exactly excuse Aidan's enthusiastic participation, would it?

No. This time, Josh's denial was up against too much evidence that couldn't be ignored; he wouldn't be able to pretend that this…_something_…between them was just going to go away. So, they'd talk. And sometime between now and then, Aidan would have to figure out a way to approach Josh about his interest – and by interest, he meant the violent, whirling cyclone of sexual tension, need and overwhelming love currently wreaking havoc on his ability to think clearly.

But what exactly would be the right tactic for transitioning from bros to lovers? None of the usual approaches felt right for them. A big, heartfelt confession was so outside both of their comfort zones that Aidan would probably make a fool out of himself and Josh would undoubtedly bolt at the first opportunity. Romance, in the roses-and-candlelight sense, was out of the question, too. The only reason either had done that in the past was to make the women in their lives happy. He and Josh agreed on that much at least; it didn't really do anything for either of them. Sadly, the super-macho approach probably had the best chance of success, which was a generous 'slim' rather than a hopeless 'none'.

He could just picture himself going up to Josh, punching him in the arm and blurting, 'Hey, we've got a seriously epic friendship going on here, right? How would you feel about fucking on top of that? I'm serious, dude…like literally, _on top of that_.' That last part would be said while pointing to the kitchen table, because after last night, the idea of fucking on the kitchen table was quickly becoming Aidan's favorite fantasy.

While Josh usually appreciated directness, that method was probably _too_ strong and had a better-than-slim chance of freaking him the hell out.

Although, what scenario _wouldn't_ result in Josh losing his god-damned mind?

"Dawn's breaking." Sally said softly, staring out the window.

"Hm?" Aidan snapped to attention, looking at her. Glancing down at the cards, he saw they were in a neat pile in front of him rather than dealt out for Speed. "Oh, um, are we playing or what?"

"Aidan, you've been staring into space like a lobotomy patient for the past ten minutes. I kind of gave up on the cards."

"I'm sorry." Aidan sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I guess I'm a little preoccupied."

"Understandable." Sally smiled, before glancing back out the window and taking in the muted colors of the sunrise. "He'll be back to normal by now."

"Yeah. He should be home soon."

"So…" Sally dragged out, turning to Aidan. "How do you think he's going to handle this? DEFCON 5?"

Aidan snorted, shaking his head. "DEFCON 4, at least."

Aidan and Sally smiled at each other, thinking back to when they first created the DEFCON system. They'd been hanging out, completely bored one afternoon, when Josh had coming tearing through the house like the Tasmanian Devil, talking ninety to nothing in stark panic, babbling incoherently as he searched frantically for something in the living room. As soon as he found it, he'd flown out of the house as quickly as he'd come, spewing more verbal diarrhea that neither could follow and not letting them get a word in edgewise before disappearing.

They'd both been left gaping and laughing. One thing led to another and before they knew it, they'd developed the DEFCON system for classifying Josh's freak-outs. Maybe it was pathetic that they paid that much attention to their other roommate, but it was so worth it. The number of times they'd spoken to each other in front of Josh, just naming a DEFCON stage and sharing a secret grin, was always good for a laugh. Josh would get frustrated, then whine and plead to be let in on the joke, never realizing he was already part of it.

After much debate, he and Sally had organized them from most common/least serious to least common/most serious and defined the DEFCON stages thusly:

DEFCON 5: Shocked Panic. Extremely frequent, but innocuous. Characterized by rambling, wild gesticulating, failure to make eye contact and overall twitchiness. By far, the most amusing stage.

DEFCON 4: Uncomfortable Panic. Most common when Josh is forced to have an honest conversation about his emotions. Characterized by regular throat clearings, shifting of his body weight, and an increased frequency of the phrases 'um…yeah', 'you know', and 'do I really have to say it?' Also known as the Awkward Man Chat stage.

DEFCON 3: Depressed Panic. The first serious DEFCON stage, but tends to pass within a day or two. Characterized by lamentations of what might have been if he was never Turned, questions of 'why me'; more drinking, more sleep, less showering, and no shaving.

DEFCON 2: Existential Panic. Usually experienced around Yom Kippur or after causing harm to another person, however accidental. Wherein Josh ponders good vs. evil, the nature of God and tries to reconcile his affliction with his faith. Characterized by unsettling silence on Josh's part; includes copious amounts of self-loathing and despair beyond that experienced in DEFCON 3. Infrequent, but generally lasts between 3 and 10 days.

DEFCON 1: Insane Panic. This stage was something he and Sally knew about in theory, but thankfully had never experienced firsthand – the stage in which Josh succumbs to true madness. Not the zany, amusing kind of crazy found in DEFCON 5, but pure irrationality. Characterized by a fanatical, unshakable belief that an absurd and self-destructive path is the right one. Often accompanied by a martyr complex. The only example they knew of was the decision that led him to them – his decision to abandon his family, friends, future, home and job to lead a solitary, miserable existence. Extremely rare, but with permanent and disastrous consequences.

"As long as it's DEFCON 3 or above, you can handle it, right?" Sally asked.

"I hope like hell that getting off with me last night doesn't make him depressed."

"Hey, defining them was hard enough; predicting them is impossible." Sally joked, before her expression became more serious. "But you've got this, right?"

"Yeah, I got this."

"Okay, then." Sally nodded. "Then I'll leave you to it. Much as I'd like to play voyeur to another peep show, something tells me this is going to be hard enough without me here."

"Thanks, Sally. For tonight." Aidan smiled.

Sally leaned toward him and pecked his cheek, causing his skin to tingle where her energy made contact. "Anytime. Good luck and give him hell."

Aidan chuckled. "Will do."

Sally misted out of the room and Aidan stretched out on his bed, hands behind his head. Nothing left to do but wait for Josh to come home.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Hours later, Aidan was still in the same position: lying on his bed, absentmindedly twirling Josh's Star of David necklace around his finger and trying to ignore the deep, gnawing dread hollowing out his stomach. It was almost two in the afternoon and Josh still wasn't home. That was unheard of. The morning after a Shift was Josh's chance to breathe a sigh of relief; one more month down and he had four weeks of relative normalcy before repeating it. He was always eager to get home and put the experience behind him. The latest he'd ever been in getting home was mid-morning and that was because he'd gotten lost in the woods.

But now he had the storage unit, so that obviously wasn't the case. Josh was purposefully staying away from home and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. Last night had freaked him out. Aidan knew it would; hell, he and Sally had joked about it just hours ago. But maybe they were off in their predictions. Maybe it was DEFCON 3 and Josh was hunched over at some dive bar, getting drunk. Or maybe it was DEFCON 2 and he was still lying on the floor of the storage unit, naked and practically catatonic in his panic.

Aidan couldn't even think about the possibility of DEFCON 1.

But Jesus, it wasn't _that_ big of a deal, was it? So, they kissed and dry-humped in the kitchen! Oooh, it's the end of the world as we know it! Let's freak out and worry Aidan sick! God knows they'd been through weirder shit, so what the hell was going on and WHY THE HELL WASN'T JOSH HOME?

Okay. Not helping.

Breathe. Breathe.

Aidan forced his body to relax. His hands slowly uncurled themselves from the tight fists they'd been in and Aidan felt something wet on his palm. Looking down, he saw that the points of Josh's Star of David necklace had broken the skin. Mind still whirling with barely controlled anxiety, he absentmindedly brought the damaged flesh to his mouth and sucked at the wounds.

Bang.

Aidan's head jerked up. That was the front door slamming shut. He heard heavy, hurried footsteps running up the stairs and the door to Josh's room creak in protest and then thud against the wall as it was thrown open.

Oh, thank _God_.

Aidan swung his legs over the side of the bed and took a couple of deep breaths before pushing himself to his feet. Walking down the short hallway between their rooms, Aidan couldn't say whether he felt more like a condemned man walking toward the gallows or an eager groom running halfway down the aisle to meet his love because he couldn't wait for them to come to him. Either way, the results were the same; his breathing was shallow and rapid, his stomach was flip-flopping like crazy and his hands were shaking.

But when he finally stood in the doorway of Josh's room, his body stilled and he felt his gut drop like an anvil.

Josh looked _terrible_, nearly as bad as he had when he'd been ill with meningitis. His face was unnaturally white, even paler than Aidan's skin. Heavy bags hung under Josh's bloodshot eyes and his pupils were hugely dilated. His hair was sticking up at all angles, as though he'd been running his hands through it anxiously, and his perpetual five o'clock shadow was scruffier and more obvious than ever. His posture sagged with defeat and bone-deep exhaustion. His current state was worrisome, to say the least.

The suitcase, however, was downright terrifying. Despite his noticeable weakness, Josh was moving quickly between his closet and an open suitcase on the bed, hastily throwing in armfuls of clothes.

Aidan swallowed tightly. God, having near-sex with Aidan was so horrifying to Josh that he was _leaving_ because of it. Of all the situations Aidan had pictured, of all the ways he'd thought this might go down, this was so much worse than any worse-case-scenario he'd come up with. This was beyond a gross overreaction; this was sheer stupidity!

No, it was more than that. This was insanity.

This was DEFCON 1.

…

…

Well, fuck that! Josh would leave over his Staked body!

With that thought in his head, Aidan leaned against the doorjamb with deceptive casualness. His body relaxed, his eyes thinned and a sardonic smirk curled on his lips. There were dozens of Vampires that could testify to this posture's significance. This was Aidan at his most determined and dangerous: when he was absolutely immutable and achieving his goal wasn't a matter of _if_, but _when_.

Aidan stuck out a finger and let Josh's necklace dangle off the end. "Forgetting something?"

It was a testament to how deep Josh was in DEFCON 1 that he wasn't startled. He merely paused his rushed packing and turned broken, empty eyes to Aidan.

"Aidan." Josh croaked out, his voice hoarse. "What are you doing here? I thought you had a shift."

Aidan shrugged carelessly, tucking the necklace back into his fist. "I called in sick."

"What? Why?"

Aidan snorted. "Josh, I've been your best friend for three years. You really think I don't know when you're going to freak-out? You really think I don't know when you're getting ready to pull a runner? Christ, that's how we _met_."

Josh swallowed tightly, letting the silence linger between them. When he finally spoke, his words were pure anguish for both of them. "I have to leave, Aidan. And you have to let me go."

"The hell I do." Aidan sneered. "I don't care if I have to chain you to the fucking bed; you're not leaving just because you're scared."

"I'm not scared!" Josh snapped, his eyes blazing to life again. But as quickly as the passionate fire appeared, it bled out of him. Josh collapsed shakily into the chair by the bed, resting his elbows on his knees and his forehead on his interlocked hands. Aidan pushed off from his casual lean against the door and moved to sit on the bed. Josh shook his head and a bitter, heartbroken laugh escaped him. "You know what? You're right. I am scared. I'm scared shitless."

"Josh." Aidan said softly. "Come on, man. It's me you're talking to. What's this all about?"

Josh glanced up, meeting Aidan's gaze at the same moment a tear ran down his cheek. Aidan's heart broke at the sight; Josh was destroying himself over this and Aidan couldn't figure out _why_. As Josh spoke, his speech was stilted and dripping with self-loathing. "Aidan…last night…God, last night, I did something that we can't come back from. And that _terrifies_ me. Because we're Josh-And-Aidan, you know? Whatever shit the world throws at us next, we can handle it because we're together and we're a team. Do you think I _want_ to leave home? Do you think I want to leave _you_? Jesus, I can't even remember how to be me without you! I mean…me being me? Without you being you, right there at my side? It makes all of this – trying to be normal, trying to hang onto my humanity, my _sanity_ – it's all just so fucking pointless without you."

"So stay." Aidan begged. "You don't have to be alone. Whatever's going on with you, we can deal with it together."

"Aidan, I'm doing this for you! I'm leaving for you!"

Aidan sputtered. He knew this was the insanity stage but this was beyond the pale! "How is you leaving possibly for my benefit?"

"God, don't you get it yet? I had to run three years ago, for the same reason I have to run now! I'm like necrotic tissue, man. I can either stay here and watch everything good in my life wither in my presence or I can excise myself and leave everything else to flourish without me. I was stupid to even try this with you! I knew, I _knew_ that I was toxic, but I thought it would be different because you're a Vampire! I didn't think that I could ever hurt you and now I have, in an unforgivable, unconscionable way!" Josh let out a crazed, bizarre laugh, running his hands over his face. "And even after what I've done, here you are, wanting me to stay and that's just further proof that I have to get away from you, _far away_, before I ruin you even more! I can't stay here, knowing what I've done! I can't stay here and risk it happening again! I can't do it! I won't do it! So I'll leave, because even though it'll kill me to do it, you'll be safe from me and that's all that matters!"

Josh was wound up to the point of hysteria and Aidan was honestly scared for his state of mind. He was talking nonsense and his fears had no basis in reality. With urgency he hadn't felt in a long time, Aidan moved quickly to kneel in front of Josh and he cradled the Werewolf's face in his hands, forcing Josh to look at him.

"Josh, you're not making any sense. You haven't done anything to me. I'm fine." Aidan insisted firmly, willing him to let the truth of those words penetrate his madness.

Josh just stared at him, like _he_ was the crazy one, before knocking his hands away and jumping up from his chair. He started pacing and tugging at his hair, looking every bit like the lunatic Aidan feared he was becoming.

"Oh God, it's happened already!" Josh panicked. "I broke you! You must have snapped at the trauma and now you have Stockholm Syndrome and you're identifying with me and defending me! Aidan, we have to get you help!"

"Josh! Nothing is wrong with me! I'm fine! There was no trauma!"

"Aidan, I nearly raped you last night!" Josh shouted.

Aidan drew back in utter, mind-numbing shock before yelling back an incredulous, "_WHAT?_"

"I almost raped you!" Josh cried hysterically, his voice saturated with disgust and self-hatred. "I probably would have, if you hadn't fought back! Christ, Aidan, you had to _bite_ me to get me to stop! There's no coming back from something like that and – _are you laughing?_"

Aidan was doubled over, clutching his stomach. He was laughing so hard, the force of it made his cheeks go numb, his stomach muscles cramp and tears stream down his face. Some small part of him knew it was completely insensitive to howl with laughter while Josh was still so wound up, but he couldn't stop. Aidan _needed_ this. After all the angst and fear, after believing for however brief a time that he was going to lose Josh, he needed this catharsis. He needed to purge all those twisty, dark emotions by indulging in their antithesis. He was just so unbelievably _relieved_ and that feeling flooded his system like a tidal wave.

By the time Aidan was finally strong enough to straighten up, he wiped the tears from his eyes and gave a few more euphoric chuckles. Glancing at Josh, he almost lost it all over again. Josh had his hands on his hips, nodding his head in rapid, short jerks, his mouth pursed tightly and looking equal parts confused and livid.

"Ya finished, you sick bastard?" Josh bit out acerbically. "'Cause I can wait if you're not. Yeah, go ahead and yuk it up, because me turning into a violent sex offender is just _so_ fucking hilarious."

Aidan shook his head in disbelief. Of all the absurd conclusions he could have drawn…not only was last night consensual, Aidan had fervently, eagerly reciprocated! How could he possibly believe otherwise? Sure, the wolf may have been in charge –

Oh, _duh_.

Of course.

The wolf was in charge. Josh never remembered what happened during his Shifts, so…

"Josh, what do you remember about last night?" Aidan asked.

Josh shook his head and swallowed tightly. "Just…just flashes, here and there. Me, pinning you to the table, tearing off your shirt. You, struggling underneath me, screaming. You biting me."

"Wow. Your tendency to believe the worst about yourself never ceases to amaze me." Aidan snorted. "Right facts, wrong context, genius."

"What are you talking about?" Josh asked, some of the tension draining out of him.

"Look, I know we've never sat down and had a conversation about the mating habits of our species, but I didn't bite you to _stop_ you. I bit you because I was into it." Aidan grinned.

Josh made a really intelligent sound, like "Whaaa?"

"Josh, if I had really tried to stop you, trust me, you'd be feeling it this morning. I bit you because you looked fucking hot, howling on top of me. So, relax! You're not a would-be rapist; you haven't damaged our friendship. If fact, the only way you could is if you _ever_ try to pull a runner again."

Half a second later, Aidan had Josh wrapped around him in the mother of all bear-hugs. "Oh, thank God. Thank _God_! Aidan, I was so worried I hurt you and that you'd hate me and that I'd ruined the best thing in my life and that I'd have to leave to save you. But you're okay! You're okay, right? Of course you're okay, because you're here and I'm here and we're Josh-And-Aidan again and oh, God, I love you. Fuck, I love you so much, Aidan. More than you'll ever know. Hey, we should celebrate! I mean, I still feel like shit, actually more than usual after a Shift, but screw it, let's celebrate tonight! You go get dressed, I'm gonna take a shower!"

And, par for the course, as quickly as Josh had attacked him, that's how suddenly he left. Aidan was left alone in the room, his eyes wide and his arms outstretched as if still circling Josh. Then they fell to his side and Aidan flopped backwards onto the bed, covering his face with his hands and groaning. Jesus Christ, what did he have to do? Hire a skywriter? Rent a billboard? Take out a full-page ad in the paper? Aidan had just come out and _told _Josh, straight to his face, that he thought Josh was hot and that he'd gotten off because of him! And Josh had just skated past it like it was nothing! Yes, his relief at finding out he wasn't a sexual predator must have been immense, but when your best friend tells you they _came in their fucking pants_ because of you, most people would take notice! But noooo, not Josh Radcliff! Not the man who was so clueless, he could give Alicia Silverstone a run for her money!

Despite having already talked Josh down from the ledge, his body was still geared up for a fight and determination was still blazing inside of him.

"That's. It." Aidan growled, jumping off the bed and stalking to the bathroom. He turned the knob, finding it unlocked, and slammed the door open. Storming to the running shower, he yanked the curtain aside, not even pausing to drink in the sight of a wet, naked Josh.

"Aidan, what the he-mmph!"

Before Josh could finish, Aidan stepped into the shower, backed Josh up to the tile wall and kissed him with all the fury of his churning, manic emotions. Water rained down on his head and ran between their joined lips, slipping over their tongues whenever Aidan drew back long enough to slant his mouth over Josh's at a new angle. Aidan buried one hand into Josh's wet hair and the other was pressed firmly into the small of his back, crushing their lower halves together. Aidan could pinpoint the exact moment when Josh let go of his shock and obviously said, 'fuck it' to himself. His hands went to the hem of Aidan's shirt and peeled the plastered fabric off of him, throwing the sopping rag into the corner and running his hands along Aidan's torso. Aidan moaned and, reaching a hand between them, he gripped Josh's half-hard erection and started to stroke him slowly.

"Oh, sweet Moses." Josh breathed, his eyes squeezed shut and his head falling to Aidan's shoulder.

"I love you." Aidan murmured in between kisses to Josh's neck. "I love you so fucking much and it _kills_ me that you don't see it. I'll do anything you want, just to make you see. Candlelit dinners and moonlight strolls? They're yours if you want them."

"Ahh." Josh cried as Aidan's hand started to circle faster.

"Some grand, heartfelt confession of undying, all-consuming love?" Aidan panted into Josh's mouth. "If you need to hear that you're my everything, I'll say it every fucking day. If you don't already know, I'll tell you everything you are to me. You're my conscience, my heart, my life, my love, my best frie – oh, God!" Aidan cut off as Josh undid his fly and started stroking him back. He had to shake his head to continue, spouting whatever happened to pop into his head without restraint. "M-my best friend, my lobster, my sherpa, whatever the hell else! You're it, you're everything."

They were both breathing hard, legs shaking and knees quaking in an effort to stay upright in the face of overwhelming ecstasy. With some effort, Aidan managed to open his eyes and blink against the water streaming down from his hair. Josh's head was tilted back against the wall, his mouth parted slightly and his face radiant with pleasure. So. Beautiful. Aidan leaned in and rested his forehead against Josh's, never slowing the now fevered pace of his hand.

"Please…please, tell me I'm not in this alone." Aidan whispered, eyes falling shut in a silent, hopeful plea.

"You're not." came Josh's strangled whisper back. "I love you."

"How? How do you love me? In what way?" Aidan demanded, catching Josh's earlobe between his teeth.

"In every way." Josh moaned back. "I love you platonically, romantically, fraternally, hopelessly. Every version of love that one person has ever felt for another, I feel all of them for you. S'why I never said anything; wasn't sure what I was feeling. I couldn't ever pin it down, couldn't ever define it, it changes from moment to moment."

"God, me too. I feel the exact same way." Aidan admitted, overcome. "In all ways. For always."

Josh's knees finally buckled and he would have fallen to the floor, if not for Aidan holding him up. Bringing their lips together in another frenzied kiss, Aidan murmured against his mouth, "Bed?"

"Fast'd be better than slow." Josh pushed off the wall and stepped over the rim of the tub, dragging Aidan with him by hooking his thumbs into the belt loops of Aidan's jeans. They bumped and stumbled their way down the hall, soaking wet and kissing heatedly all the while. They finally made it to Aidan's room and tumbled to the bed as a single, connected entity. Josh scooted backwards on the bed until his head hit the pillow, Aidan crawling with him to stay cradled between his thighs. Aidan kissed down Josh's neck, to his chest and circled one of Josh's nipples with his tongue before pulling it gently with his teeth.

"AHH, holy shit! Okay, you know what? Aidan, I appreciate the effort, I really do, but seriously, man…fuck foreplay! You need to fuck me, like_ now_!" Josh babbled, hips arching up into Aidan's.

"Oh, thank God." Aidan sagged in relief, tugging off his pants and reaching into the nightstand for a bottle of lube. "'Cause I've been going out of my mind since last night, I need you so –"

"Like, _thirty seconds ago_, Aidan!"

Aidan chuckled, drizzling lube onto his fingers. "Someone's impatient. Relax, Josh, we've got all night."

"I swear, if you try to drag this out all night, I will _murder_ you." Josh groaned, gasping as one of Aidan's fingers slipped inside him. "Oh, goddamn!"

"One of these days, I'm going to make love to you all night long and then you'll change your tune." Aidan smirked, adding a second finger. He curled and thrust them at different angles, trying to find that sweet spot.

"Sure, yeah, someday, but not today. Not now. I can't wait that lo – OH, FUCK!" Josh screamed, fisting his sheet in his hands.

"There, huh?" Aidan grinned devilishly, pressing into the spot mercilessly and making Josh see stars.

"Aidan!" Josh cried, somewhere between a whine and a sob.

Aidan crawled up Josh's body and kissed him until they were both breathless and shaking with need. Aidan slicked his cock and lined it up with Josh's tight hole, kissing down the side of his neck to relax him.

"You ever done this before?"

"Once, in college."

"It might hurt."

"Fuck if I care, I just need you."

"I love you."

"I love you, too. Now, _do it_."

Aidan inched forward, tapping reserves of self-restraint he didn't know he had as he slipped into Josh's tight heat. They groaned in unison, their mouths finding each other's again. Josh shifted his hips and Aidan felt his self-control lurch at the jolting spike of pleasure that rolled through him. Josh gave a quiet grunt as Aidan pushed in further and the Vampire stilled immediately, letting him adjust. Reaching between their wet bodies, he took Josh's cock in hand and stroked him lazily. Each time he reached the tip, he'd twist and circle his hand around the head, rubbing the soft, sensitive skin of it against his rough palm. After Josh became a writhing, incoherent mess beneath him once again, he combined the movement with minute thrusts forward until he was buried to the hilt within the Werewolf.

He withdrew slightly, before pushing forward in a shallow, experimental thrust.

"Ah!" Josh cried, rolling his hips in a tense circle and making Aidan cry out too. "Aidan…f-feels so good. Move, damn it! I won't break! Just fuck me already!"

He'd wanted Josh like this for so long and those words were enough to make the last threads of his self-control snap. Attacking Josh's mouth, Aidan pulled out to the tip before plunging back in. Josh raised his hips and pushed back against him, keeping up with Aidan's frenetic, pounding rhythm. It was unreal, how _good_ it felt. Josh's hot, slick skin was gliding against his with every rocking push forward. The air smelled like sex and sweat and Vampire and Werewolf and blood and Aidan never wanted to exhale again; he just wanted to let that scent burn through him forever. He'd always known Josh was vocal during sex, having shared a wall with him for two years, but every moan, plea, curse, cry and shout was now because of _him_. Aidan hooked an elbow under one of Josh's knees and raised it to his shoulder, driving his pace faster and wanting to elicit every noise Josh was capable of making. One of Josh's hands gripped his ass, urging him on, faster and harder, better and better each time. Sweat soaked into Josh's already damp hair and a red flush rose on his face.

"God, you're fucking gorgeous right now. You have no idea." Aidan panted, slowing his tempo just long enough to meet Josh's lips for a messy, heated kiss.

"Back at ya, baby." Josh gave a breathless laugh, which turned into a long moan when Aidan resumed his previous rhythm. Winking up at Aidan, Josh smacked his ass, making the Vampire's hips stutter in shock before he broke into a euphoric, wide grin and voiced his own gasping laugh.

Only Josh could make him laugh during sex. Only with him did Aidan feel the exhilarated, jubilant _fun_ that sex always promised, but continually failed to deliver. It was fun, happy, hot, needy, desperate, warm, amazing, frantic, intimate and everything Aidan never realized he'd been missing. This, right here with Josh, was _life_. This was living and being, breathing and existing, and he wanted Josh…this…them, forever.

"I love you." Aidan murmured, his eyes turning black and his fangs emerging as his orgasm coiled within him. He was already hammering into Josh with relentless force, but shifted his hips until he was striking Josh's prostate with every pass. Aidan pumped his hand up Josh's hard, throbbing cock in time with his thrusts.

"I love you so much. Oh, fuck, Aidan! Don't stop!" Josh yelled, raising his head up to meet Aidan's lips. And into Aidan's mouth, Josh gave a loud, wordless shout as he came. White ribbons shot over Aidan's hand onto Josh's stomach and chest. His muscles clenched and spasmed around Aidan until the Vampire joined him a moment later, letting out his own forceful roar.

Aidan laid his forehead against Josh's shoulder, his lungs burning for air and his body completely sated. They panted against each other, immobile and spent. Aidan didn't quite have the strength to roll onto his back, so just fell gracelessly onto his stomach by Josh's side, not even bothering to untangle their legs.

"Hey, Aidan." Josh slurred beside him, sounding as sleepy as Aidan felt.

"Hmm?" Aidan responded, unable to open his eyes.

"Earlier, in the shower…" Josh mumbled, amusement in his tone. "Did you call me a sherpa?"

Aidan chuckled, the sound rumbling from deep in his chest. "Man, fuck you."

"Again? Why, Aidan, you insatiable sex machine, you." Josh teased drowsily.

"Go to sleep." Aidan yawned, throwing an arm over Josh's waist.

Josh yawned in reply, saying, "Don't mind if I do."

**XXXXXXXXXX**

"Aidan. Aidan, wake up!"

Aidan jerked awake, glancing around the dark room blearily. Turning over to look behind him, he started violently when he saw Sally sitting cross-legged on the bed.

"Sally." he half-sighed, half-whined.

"Your boyfriend is freaking out."

"Yeah, he does that sometimes." Aidan replied, closing his eyes and burrowing back into the covers.

"So…that means you should probably get up and handle it."

"Sally, its Josh. This is his process for dealing with change; you _know_ that. Believe me, the worst is behind us. Just talk to him. You two will get to gossip together and I'll get to sleep. We all come away happy."

"I can't. He locked himself in the laundry room."

"Yeah, 'cause doors are such an issue for you." Aidan snorted, burying his face in Josh's pillow and inhaling the smell of him.

"He salted me out."

Aidan went still and finally cracked his eyes open. "He salted you out." he repeated in a loaded tone.

"Yeah, he went into the kitchen – looking like death, by the way – got something out of the fridge, grabbed the salt and locked himself in. I don't think this is a typical Josh freak-out."

"No." Aidan agreed, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and jerking on his pants hastily. "No, it's definitely not."

Aidan moved quickly from the room and jogged down the stairs, scrubbing his face with his hands in an attempt to wake himself up. When he finally got to the kitchen, he approached the laundry room door and rapped on it quietly.

"Josh?" Aidan called. "You okay?"

"Aidan!" Josh yelped. There was some rustling movement in the laundry room, before Josh finally responded. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm good! Nothing wrong here! Go back to bed!"

"Josh, why –" Aidan cut himself off, sniffing at the air.

"What is it?" Sally asked.

Aidan swallowed tightly, fear plastered over his face. "Blood. Lots of it."

Sally's hands flew to her mouth in alarm.

"Josh, let me in!" Aidan shouted, pounding on the door.

"No! Aidan, it's fine –"

Aidan didn't wait for any more excuses. He rammed his shoulder against the door and it burst open. Time itself seemed to stop as Aidan took in the scene before him. Josh had wedged himself into a corner of the room, his knees pulled up to his chest and one arm wrapped around them. His other hand held one of Aidan's IV bags. Two empty ones were discarded on the floor. Blood was spread thick over Josh's face and neck.

His eyes were black.

He had fangs.

"Oh, dear God." Sally whispered with vacant dread.

"Josh…" Aidan breathed.

"Aidan." Josh choked out a sob, his face crumpling. "What's…what's happening to me?"

This wasn't possible. No Werewolf had ever been Turned before, not successfully anyway. And even if they could, no other Vampire had been near Josh – he would have smelled it if they had – and Aidan hadn't done anything to –

Oh.

Oh, _no_.

_Please_, no.

Last night. The kitchen table. Josh had bitten him, drank his blood…and he'd bitten Josh back. How could he have been so careless? His only defense was that no one had ever _taken_ his blood before; he'd always had to consciously give it to Turn someone. But Josh had lapped at his blood like a kitten would cream and then, in a moment of pure instinct, Aidan had bitten him too, completing the process.

Blood Exchange.

"Josh." Aidan rasped. "Oh, God, Josh…I think…I think I Turned you."

"W-what does that mean? For me…as a Werewolf?"

Aidan shook his head slowly and met Josh's eyes, apology, grief and support shining in his own.

"I have no idea."

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**So, I'm thinkiiiiing…sequel?**

**Anyone? Anyone?**

**Let me know! Please read and review!**


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